Like a Prodigal
by ThePandorica-Studios
Summary: They were supposed to last forever. But when love becomes fickle and suspicious and gives way to anger personified in a man who is here to take back what is rightfully his... Will they be able to survive and stay true to their promise of eternity… AU
1. Heart's Darkest Desires

Hey, so here I am, with a new story. Originaly supposed to be a one-shot, but got out of hand, so I split it into several pieces... Don't know how long it will be before I finaly get it done, tho'. Uhm, looking for a beta for this as well, I suppose, could use with someone ironing out all of my silly mistakes... This is rated M for a reason folks, mighty graphic and explicit "encounters" are in this fic's future and I do NOT need to be a Seer to know that. Enjoy...

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Not even a single step outside the TARDIS doors and the Doctor could already see a very familiar frown forming on his companion's lovely features.

She turned to face him, her hands on her hips and a glare in her honey-brown eyes that would even put one Jacqueline Tyler to shame. She stared at him intently, making a shiver run down his spine as he gulped the sudden lump that had formed in his throat as he tried to remember what exactly he had done wrong this time.

After they had finally managed to escape the clutches of the Beast and his blood-curdling prophesies, he had promised her a nice, relaxing vacation on a planet called Castalia, part of the Vixen constellation, some approximate 28 million light years away from Earth and the most popular pleasure planet in this part of the Universe, perhaps even a bit further.

He couldn't understand what had gone awry this time round. He made sure he entered the right coordinates, the TARDIS was in full working capacity – even if she was still blocking him out and plain out ignoring him 'cause she blamed him for landing on the Impossible planet in the first place – so he couldn't figure out what could've made Rose mad at him.

He didn't want her to be mad at him. Not ever. A mad Rose was a scary Rose, even if he did particularly like the way her blood pooled to her heated cheeks whilst in her fury; the way her chest rose and fell heavily with each deep breath she took, no doubt trying to distract herself from slapping him; the way her hands that were firmly planted on her hips made her luscious breasts push out and strain against the material of those thin hoodies she liked to wear so much; the way…

"Where exactly did you take us, Doctor?" Rose's harsh voice brought him out of his musings and he stared at her for what must've been a full minute, taking her in, his mind eons away from the present, suddenly focused solely on her.

He took a deep breath, expelling it in a large huff, forcing himself to calm down. He had no right to think about his precious Rose that way. He had no right to taint her with his tortured and lonesome past. She wasn't his and it was none of his business to think of her like that. She was a mere human and she _belonged _with a human. Someone who could love her utterly and completely just the way she was; someone who could give her a stable, normal life and many, many beautiful babies.

And that particular revelation made his blood boil and his hands form into fists as he clenched them by his sides, turning his knuckles paler than they already were. The emotion that ran through him and forced him to forget even considering that option was unfamiliar to him. He had never felt this way before, not for any of his companions and not even when his sweet, innocent niece Susan was considered. His eyes saw red and he felt sparks explode behind his eyelids as the green-eyed monster tore its way through his system making his hearts clench painfully with the very _thought _of _his_ Rose belonging to anyone else, but him.

Which was exactly why he had been doing the bloody best of his ability to push her away lately, hoping she would finally understand what he was trying to do and finally leave on her own accord and in the same time desperately needing her to stay, just like she had promised him, even when he couldn't bring himself to keep his own vow to her because his overly cowardly nature prevented him from doing so. He wasn't strong enough to tell her to leave, but he was by no means capable of taking the risk of taking things between on a higher, more physical and intimate level.

The very prospect terrified him and as the eternal coward he was, he chose not to act on those impulses that nearly drove him insane every time she would impose her presence on him, in the very moments when he most wanted his solitude and tried everything he could to keep her at arms length.

His resolve seemed to be taking its toll on his sweet Rose as well. He had noticed that she no longer seeked to be in his presence any longer than she had to, her hand no longer sought out his in a simple comforting gesture and the usual celebratory hugs they had shared had become few and far in between and even when they did happen, she was stiff and unmoving in his arms, as if the very thought of touching him caused her physical pain.

If it wasn't for the desperate longing he saw in her eyes every time she thought he wasn't looking; if only the look of rejection and pure hurt didn't immediately find residence on her soft features every time he moved away from her on purpose and left her to her own devices before he had the chance to do something he _knew _they'd both regret… maybe he would have believed the make-believe coldness she expressed towards him as of late.

Desperate to escape his thoughts, he plastered a large grin on his face, the one he kept for her and her alone, and ran to her side frantically, taking her hand in his and looking not even remotely bothered by the fact that she kept tugging on her hand, trying to pull it free from his grasp.

"Why don't we go and find out then, shall we?" He tried to pretend he didn't notice the way her face fell when he didn't even attempt to apologize for his apparent mistake, tried not to feel the sharp pang in his hearts as she pulled her hand to herself, turned away from him with her shoulders hunched and her steps quick, mumbling a soft 'sure' as she headed towards the front doors.

The possibility, or rather the _impossibility_ of his situation really, amazed him, if he was to be honest. When the Beast had uttered his damned prophesy, his hearts had literally stopped and he felt as if the air had literally been knocked out of his lungs. A very strange, but familiar moisture burned in the back of his eyelids and at that very moment, as he even tried to imagine a life without his Rose in it, he found that he couldn't come up with anything. His existence would be non-substantial, without any meaning and impossible.

This was why he was determined to make her leave him. To feel so much anger towards him… so much hatred… that she wouldn't even feel the need to find him again and continue living her life, day by day, free of the death and bloodshed that seemed to follow him no matter where he went.

His hand reached up on its own accord and tousled his brown hair, making it even messier then before. His steps were slow and somehow measured, apprehensive, as if his own body was trying to give him some hint that this trip might potentially become a very dangerous situation.

As always, he ignored the warning and grabbing his coat from the railing, he stepped outside where he expected to find Rose waiting for him. He couldn't see in front of him as he was pulling his brown coat on, but the apology he owed her was already on his lips, on the tip of his tongue, ready and hastily rehearsed.

But then the Doctor looked up and Rose was nowhere to be found. He eyes looked around frantically, before finally dropped to the ground as something on it was reflected by the sun. His lips formed an 'o' shape as he let out a slight yelp, fear creeping within him as each second passed and Rose didn't appear from somewhere behind the TARDIS shouting 'surprise'.

On the ground, forgotten lay a bracelet, her bracelet, the one he had bought her on their trip to Melios.

A beautiful, simple bracelet made out of a noble metal which was very similar to silver and had several bells attached to it, making a slight ringing sound echo around her with each movement. Jokingly, he had told her that this way; he might be able to locate her more easily each time she wandered off. She had just stuck her tongue out at him and slapped him teasingly on his forearm.

His crouched down to the ground as his mind suddenly turned blank, his cool fingers picking up the discarded jewelry, snapped in one place from being torn.

All thoughts had fled his mind. For the cleverest and most resourceful creature in the Universe, he certainly felt pretty clueless at the moment. He just stared at the item 'twined with his finger as if it was something offensive and it was its fault Rose got taken away.

The Doctor looked up. He briefly considered calling for Rose's name, but her bright, golden presence which had filled his mind ever since the Game Station had been replaced once again by the blankness and emptiness he used to feel. And he knew it was too late.

Something was either blocking him from reaching to her or…

"No!" He stood quickly, shoving that thought in the back of his mind. Putting the offensive piece of cool metal that rested in his hands somewhere deep in his pockets, along the very bottom, he refused to even consider the option that his Rose was gone. He had only been in TARDIS for barely 5 minutes after she had left its premises, it was far too little time for someone to have... _taken_ her and dragged her away.

Only… he knew it wasn't. He was fast to realize his mistake the moment he had exited his TARDIS and the scent of rihso, which was the most powerful aphrodisiac in the Universe, available only to humans after the 59th century, had filled his senses. He looked around at his surroundings again and cringed when he noticed the tall, twin mountains that resided in the south, the sun reflecting upon them giving them a strong, red glow, almost the color of blood. Right at their bottom border, a large, oval-shaped lake took residence, nearly blinding him with his crystal clarity and blue-yellowish surface even when he was miles away. To the north, the industrial zone of the city began and many large, high domes and buildings resided on the outskirts of town, the houses and buildings getting lower and lower as his gaze focused around the center of the city.

A sharp realization came to the front of his mind as the name of the planet appeared itself and startled him into silence.

"Stardom 5" His lips murmured and he ran his hands over his face as he finally understood the graveness of the error that he had made. Making Rose leave him over someone as mundane as Mickey-the-Idiot – even if he _was_ gone in the parallel universe – was one thing. Losing her to someone else by force, simply because she might make an unconscious gesture, unaware of the customs and traditions of this race, was very, very possible _and _plausible, and something different entirely.

He had to find Rose and fast, or else it might just be too late for her and consequentially, for him as well.

The people of Stardom 5 were sneaky little bastards. Their sole purpose in their lives was finding a compatible mate and then came everything else. He wasn't a fool, Rose was a beautiful girl and the possibility of someone claiming her as his caused another sharp pang to erupt in his chest. He knew he would have to fight tooth and claw to get her back if she had unknowingly accepted the advances of a Dershin. Of course, he knew how to make them back off and take her for himself instead, but he just refused to do that to her. There had to be a different way, there simply had to. The Doctor knew that Rose didn't have much time left. The Dershins were incredibly fast people, physically and mentally, and they wouldn't waste time in binding her to them. In any other planet in the world, he would have been perfectly fine with Rose pummeling a guy or two that tried to make a move on her, and he would have even given his own contribution when she wasn't watching. But not here, not on Stardom. Here, that simply wasn't an option.

Because here, if you accepted the advances of one of the locals and then rebuffed them, you were sentenced to an immediate and very painful death.

And the Doctor would have rather given away every last one of his regenerations before allowing such a crime – at least in his mind – to be committed.

With that decision, his mind already began running through different ideas and possibilities of how to get Rose back, while he began a quick and hurried pace down the steep clearing his TARDIS had landed on. He was heading directly to the heart of the town where he hoped he would find his Rose, get her out of this planet as fast and as far as he could, and still manage to maintain his own sanity, for his own well-being and hers.

"Piece of cake." He said aloud. His words echoed throughout the empty hill-top, the heavy note of sarcasm he poured in them lost in the breezy chill as the Doctor's lips curved into a frown and a deep worry-line made its presence known on his forehead.

Less then 20 minutes later, the Doctor found himself at the gates of town. In any other time and circumstance, he would've been impressed by the progress these people had made in such a short time, considering their limited resources.

Behind the large, iron gates he could see a large fountain, probably twenty feet tall, its shape oddly familiar, but not familiar enough for him to remember what it was supposed to resemble on the spot. Around it, a large purple surface spread – which was actually purple grass – decorated with several smaller fountains some distance away from the first one, several benches and something that resembled an Earth's playground in the far northern side.

Beyond that, this part of the city was just like any other; shops, cafés, restaurants and office buildings lined the already overcrowded streets. If it wasn't for the strange design and material all of these things were built with, the Doctor would've thought that he was back on Earth, walking through some random London street.

But no, what all of these buildings had in common were their bright, light colors and odd, circular-shaped roofs that resided on each and every one of them, each with a different size and slight difference in shape.

And that just brought his mind back to Rose. He had to find her, and soon, or he'd never be able to forgive himself. The guilt would haunt him forever, and besides, he had promised Jackie, vowed his lives on it, that her little girl wouldn't get hurt or stranded on some alien planet with no one to save her. He was here, and he was the Doctor. He could do anything he wanted, regardless of the consequences, and if anyone even thought that they could mess with _his _Rose and then get away with it, they had another thing coming.

He reached up with his hand, ruffling his hair and then lowering it to his neck, rubbing a few times in hopes to alleviate the tension that had accumulated in every nook and cranny of his body.

His eyes noticed the watch guard and he walked towards him, his stride purposeful, his eyes wary and ancient, seemingly aware of every trick they could play on him with his shoulders squared, as if preparing for a fight.

"Hello mate." He shouted cheerfully, gleeful that the guard hadn't even noticed him before and had dropped the spear and small dagger he was holding in his hands and was now franticly on the ground, looking for it.

The Doctor took in the features of the man in front of him and tugged on his ear. He supposed that the Dershins could pass off as a generally good-looking race.

The Dershin soldier in front of him was tall and well-built, with broad shoulders and a small neck. His skin was the characteristic blood-red color that defined this particular species. On his head, he could clearly differentiate two little horns that grew out of his head, poking upwards proudly, speaking of his mature age and experience.

The Dershins were a fascinating race at the very least; he had to give them that. They had come into existence long before the humans had and yet their physical appearance was in direct copyright violation to the devils and demons described in books and movies and what not.

The Doctor watched the Dershin finally straighten up and walk over to him, inspecting him with a critical eye. "What are you looking for here, aye?" he said in a gruff and husky voice that had the quality of torn velvet. The Doctor shuddered and plastered a large grin on his face, coming closer still, sticking his hand in the pocket of his coat, pulling out the psychic paper.

"Oh, right, right, here see, I'm the Doctor, member of the Board for Intergalactic Crime Handling, or… BICH if you wish, for short." The Doctor spoke quickly; briefly flashing the paper in front's of the guard's face, before closing it rapidly and shoving it in his pocket.

Then he straitened out and fixed the most serious expression he could muster on his face. "I and the other members of the board have firm reasons to believe that a very dangerous felony has trespassed onto your territory without you even knowing it. I have been sent here to inform you of this and find the wrong-doer so I can take her back into prison, which is where she belongs." He allowed a slight smirk to appear on his face, sure that the guard would misinterpret the gesture.

What the Doctor found ridiculous was how easy he swallowed the story and how quickly fear had found his way into the grayish-blue eyes of the Dershin and his face had turned ashen. Well, as much as it could, considering the intensified red color that filled his face and neck.

_Rose would most probably get a kick out of this_, he grinned inwardly.

"I am sorry, Doctor, but I cannot let you pass. This city is forbidding entrance to all outsiders, aye." The guard spoke, trying to keep his voice calm and professional, but the slight crack near the end of the sentence told the Doctor that he had succeeded in scaring the poor man senseless.

The Doctor glared. "I hope you understand that I am only doing my job here, sir. It is my duty to find this girl and take her back with me, and if you don't let me pass, I'll have to consider your actions as an obstruction of justice. And that means you're actually protecting the prisoner, and I'll have to take you into custody as well." His voice was low and grave, his eyes narrowed into slits. He was unleashing the full power of the Oncoming Storm and he knew that he should've thought twice before doing that. But at the moment, he wasn't being rational. He didn't give a damn about thinking things through.

At the moment, he was a man on a mission… at the moment; he was a man in love…

"But… but…" the guard sputtered, his eyes wide as saucers.

"Just let me through and I'll consider this little "encounter" forgotten." The Doctor repeated, a little urgency creeping into his voice. "Also, if you help me locate this girl, I'll even make sure you receive a nice, hefty compensation for your trouble once I got the girl back." He added.

The Dershin standing in front of him sighed. A long and rough sigh before he ran his hands over his eyes as if he was still incredulous to what had just transpired in the last few minutes.

"All right, sir Doctor, aye. I'll help you, aye." He said slowly, with a nod of his hand and moved to the gate.

The large, iron doors creaked and groaned loudly, but gave way under the strength that the guard was inflicting upon them.

The Doctor shimmied through the small space that had been created and moved to stand besides the guard. He threw his arm around his shoulders and grinned. "What's your name, by the way?"

"Marton, sir, aye, my name is Marton." The Doctor nodded and grinned again, a slight twinkle in his eyes.

"You know, Marton, I think that this may just be the start of a wonderful friendship." He laughed and headed into the general direction where he knew the older part of town should be located, in the ruins that resided near the woods. He knew that the mating rituals and traditional festivities happened there every month with lots of fireworks, drinking, and a nice, big bonfire. It was his best shot, so he had to try.

"Doctor, what's the name of this girl, aye, and what crime had she done against you, aye." Marton stopped the Doctor and looked him into the eyes and for a second, he felt compelled to just blurt out the truth.

_Her name is Rose Marion Tyler and she is guilty for repeatedly breaking my hearts… _he sighed inwardly. He would never, ever let those words cross his lips, no matter what was at stake.

"She does not have one name, Marton, she's a criminal. She has many names, tens, hundreds, maybe, but the last name she went by was Rose Tyler." He looked away from him, because the lie was somehow much harder to force through his teeth if he was looking straight at him and took a deep breath.

"She has committed many crimes against the Universe, but… thing is Marton, Ms. Tyler is wanted for genocide." That was most definitely the blackest of lies he had ever spoke in all of his nine hundred something years, because the idea of Rose, his sweet, naïve Rose doing such a thing was unthinkable. His throat constricted the moment the words were and his own mind chastised him for not thinking this through. He knew how the Dershins could be when it came to the matter of murder. They were unforgivable and now, when he had told this man that Rose had committed genocide they were never going to let her get away from here unscratched.

_STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, what have you done, you bloody bugger… _a voice that had a distinct northern accent shouted in the Doctor's head, and he bit back a sigh.

Now what was he going to do. _He_ knew that Rose wasn't capable of such a thing… Weeell, except maybe that one time with the Daleks… but that wasn't her fault, she may have been the one to start it all, but she wasn't the one who brought it to its finish. She simply wasn't herself and couldn't be blamed for that.

"Gen-genocide, Doctor. Are you certain?" Marton's voice reached his from somewhere behind and he turned around, walking over to him slowly.

"I have to be honest with you, Marton, no one can be quite certain. Until recently, we were pretty sure of this fact. But since then, more and more evidence has been coming up that Ms. Tyler's mind was under the control of some other being at the time of this attack. We have to take under consideration that she just didn't know what she was doing. This is why I have to find her, take her back with me and make sure I get the whole truth about the matter, one way or another." He nodded to him and suppressed a sigh of relief when he saw his posture relaxing, a much calmer look replacing the blazing fire of hatred that burned in his eyes just seconds ago.

"All right, Doctor, I'll help you, do you know where you want to start?" Marton quickened his pace and the Doctor followed by his side.

He nodded. "The last time I saw Ms. Tyler, she had gained a slight concussion; it is possible that she might not be aware of her surroundings or of where or who she was, so I have no doubts that if she had been found wandering around she might've already been taken to the _claste _– the large mansion where all girls in the age for marriage are living, right?" He was grasping for straws, but it was his best he could come up with.

Something in his mind just wasn't working right. It was like something had short-circuited; preventing him from thinking straight and acting accordingly to the situation he had found himself in. All he could see, each time he closed his eyes was Rose, the girl who was so full of life and fire and thirst for knowledge. She was definitely unlike any other companion he had ever had.

She was just like him, in many ways. He had come to realize, after their fourth trip in his previous body, that she had already stopped thinking that he was worth the monsters. She didn't take them just because they were a part of the life _he _led. Instead, she began to seek them out, just like he did. She began to take thrill in being chased after and her opinion didn't change even after the numerous times she had been close to dying on him because of said monsters.

That was only one of the things he loved about her. She never broke down or whined or complained. She took things in stride, as they came at her and never showed weakness. While he knew this was wrong – from his own experience mostly – he still admired her for it.

"Actually, Doctor, we might have to hurry if you are certain that she is there, aye. The official mating rituals begin tomorrow, as soon as the moon rises. For these past few weeks many girls have been already courted and claimed and now they're just waiting for the actual ceremony so that they can depart with their betrothed. I know this, because my own two daughters have already been spoken for and will be getting married tomorrow, aye." Marton spoke and blinked when he saw the alarm on clear display in the Doctor's wise eyes.

"WHAT? Why would they do that?" the Doctor's shrieked and panic obvious in his words.

"Who? My daughters?" Marton found himself confused not for the first time since meeting this weird man that called himself the Doctor.

"Yes, yes, your daughters, Marton. Of course not your daughters." He took a deep breath to calm himself, even when he knew that it was of no use.

The very thought of his Rose being _claimed _by someone else like some sort of an object… it made him was to punch something.

"Doctor, you surely must be aware that there is nothing you can do if the girl you want to find so badly has already been taken, aye?" Marton spoke, uncertainty seeping into his voice.

"I. Don't. Care. Marton. Rose is _mine_ and no one's going to take her from me, are we clear?" the Doctor growled, his mind going haywire with different possibilities and everything that could happen if he got there too late.

"Doctor?" a somewhat soothing hand reached the Doctor's shoulder.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He was loosing control of his temper and fast. He had to find Rose before he was driven absolutely mad.


	2. The Love of a Venegful God

"I'm sorry." The Doctor grumbled. This was all so new to him. Never, in all his nine hundred years had he ever felt such… wild and carnal _need _for someone like he felt for Rose now. As each second ticked by, the anguish and desperation within him increased and he begged every and any deity that might be looking down on him to have some mercy and allow things to go his way. Just this once.

He looked in front of him, placing his hand to shield his eyes from the scorching midday sun and onto the vast, green horizon that spread in front of him.

This was truly, unbelievably and utterly _ridiculous_. Even with Marton's help, it'd take him at least half a day to reach the _claste _and again, he was no fool, he was well aware that Rose was a beautiful girl with a dazzling smile and fierce character that could charm anyone. He was certain that the male population would waste no time in offering their courtship and Rose, naïve and unaware as she was, was going to make some stupid mistake and accept it.

"Marton, is there any possible way we could get to the villa faster?"

Impatience was bordering on annoyance and slowly shifting to hysteria. He had to get there. He had to make sure Rose got out of there alive and more importantly, untouched. He didn't really care what happened to him. She was all that mattered.

"Well, aye, Doctor, there is, but it's gonna cost ya. There are these transportation devices that that Loony Liam has, they can get you anywhere you want in only a pair of hours, sir." Marton muttered and the Doctor could feel the distaste he felt when he spoke the nickname poor… Liam, apparently, had been given.

"Oh, isn't that just wizard." He grumbled. "It seemed Rose was right after all. I still am a lousy date." He mumbled. He was still as penniless as he was the first time he took her to a "date" in his previous body. His pockets may be bigger on the inside, but he was absolutely certain that no money resided in their trans-dimensional insides. He had already checked.

Still, with a quirky smile and a pat on the shoulder, Marton lead the way in the opposite direction, away from the forest and away from Rose, the Doctor sighing nearly the entire way to their destination.

The town was already in full celebratory mode and the city square was swarmed with people. More then once, a lady or two, dressed in scarce pieces of clothing that somewhat reminded him of the Earth fashion in the 24 century, _the lesser, the better, _the motto had been… or will be… he supposed, passed his way, with a causal wink or two that he suspected was anything _but_ innocent.

They would bat their eyelashes at him, graze his forearms with their nails, smirk seductively and speak low, sensuous words with a soft, sexual purr. But the Doctor didn't pay any mind to not one of those women. The only face he had in his head was Rose's and the only hands he wished to be touching him, the only hands he would ever allow to touch him, were hers.

As the tenth person for the day had bumped into him, quite forcefully, he had to say, he had already had quite enough. He turned around sharply; ready to pour all of frustration and anger to the maybe-not-so-innocent passer by, when he was suddenly stunned into silence.

The face he saw in front of him was not of someone he recognized, but there was a strange aura of incredible familiarity about it. The person who had bumped into him was a woman, probably in her late twenties or early thirties that had a large halo of messy, curly ginger hair. Her eyes were a soft chocolate shade and her skin tone which was a soft, pale peach definitely distinguished her from the rest of the Dershins. His gaze unwillingly fell to her rosy, plump lips and his eyes, now wide as saucers, registered that she was smirking at him in a way that was far from innocent and far from appropriate coming from a complete stranger.

"Hello sweetie." Her voice had a sensuous, sultry tone to it and the Doctor was just able to comprehend the thick, London accent.

He blinked at her, once, twice, the word 'what' coming out of his lips soundlessly, but when he opened his eyes for a third time, she was no where to be found. His head suddenly spun with the oddness of it all and he twirled around, hoping, but thoroughly failing, thick as the crowd was, to catch a glimpse of the familiar stranger who had acted towards him in a way in which he least expected.

He could somewhat understand the behavior of the female Dershins; the festival was at its peak and the only goal in the minds of every women from this planet was to find a mate as soon and as fast as she could. However, the woman that had bumped into him… the _unfamiliar_ woman who had bumped into him was definitely not a Dershin and she definitely had no reason to treat him the way she did. The smile she had given him reminded him of the kind of smile one gave to their lover and the sultry, needy look in her gaze was one he recognized well easily enough, considering he himself wore it nearly constantly… or better said, whenever Rose was in the same room and she wasn't watching him directly.

The Doctor was fully aware of the time that he had just wasted looking for the ginger-haired stranger; he may be a renegade Time Lord, but he was a Time Lord non the less, before he shook all thoughts of the weird woman who had greeted him with such… familiarity and… closeness that was certainly impossible, and refocused them to Rose, who was probably waiting and depending on him to get her away from that place.

He turned around and groaned when he saw Marton's knowing, smug face and rubbed his face with his hands again, trying to shake the tension that had accumulated within him.

"You are wanted by quite the number of ladies, Doctor. Might I ask…" He began, turning a sharp right in a narrow alleyway so rapidly that the Doctor nearly stumbled to the ground.

The Doctor noticed that this alley led to a somewhat abandoned, darker and more dangerous part of the city, but Marton seemed to have no problems navigating his way around these parts, so the Doctor decided to go along with wherever he was taking him.

"May you ask _what_?" The Doctor chirped in, feigning cheerfulness whilst nervously tugging in his ear when Marton seemed lost in thought and had forgotten his previous question. He was surprised when Marton simply waved him off and strolled through the deserted alleyways with a look of fierce concentration.

"Come, Doctor. We're here." Marton suddenly stopped walking and stared at what seemed to be an abandoned building, suddenly seeming quite like he was in some sort of a trance. The Doctor searched for any signs or clues, but when he found none, his mind, albeit amazingly slow on the uptake considering that it was Rose's life that was on the line and quite possibly his own, began to ring a deafening warning in his head that nearly blocked out everything else.

"Again I'll ask, may you ask what?" the Doctor's eyes were drawn to several different directions at once, looking for possible means of escape. His brain was quickly coming up with different ways to take Marton out and get away. But he couldn't. He hadn't exactly been cautious of his surroundings when Marton was leading him here. There was no way he could replicate those twists and turns without even a slight sense of where he was going.

"I was going to ask, my dear, dear Doctor, why such a fascination with a mere human girl. There are plenty humanoid girls here that must be able to replace her." Marton's voice sounded hollow and dangerous. It simply served to confirm the Doctor suspicions.

_What a bloody fool I am… _he groaned inwardly.

"No, sorry Marton, Rose is it for me, I don't want any humanoid, I want her and no one else will do." Granted, the Doctor knew that he was putting his foot in his mouth, but he had been denying his… _affections _for Rose for so long, that doing it right now seemed near to impossible and he believed it might very well kill him to do so.

"Well, than Doctor, I am terribly sorry. But you are right, your Rose is a fine specimen, so exotic, so… sensuous and innocent, but so full of life." The Doctor growled and whipped around to face Marton, ready to knock the living daylights out of him, when he stopped.

The look in Marton's eyes was crazed and animalistic. His face was blank and there was an unconformable sense of wrongness in the air around him. The Doctor cringed as the cool wind that had replaced the sun's warmth blew around him, seeping through his clothes and chilling his skin.

"So all this time, all that talk and talk… and all this time you knew everything?" the Doctor's voice had gotten a surprised quality to it, even though his mind registered, albeit just a little too late, that this whole thing had been just a little bit too easy from the very get go.

Nothing ever came easy to him. Not anymore. Not for a very long time now.

"All this while… you've been leading me on?" a weird sort of confusion, or quite possibly betrayal crept into his voice on its own accord and the words came out sounding like the fact had truly hurt him deeply.

Which, truth to be told, had gotten to him 'cause this was his Rose he was trying to find and he really, really thought that Marton would understand and that he wouldn't have to do anything truly drastic whilst trying to get to her.

"She will make a nice queen for our people." Marton muttered and shrugged indifferently with his shoulders, before reaching out with his hand to the back of his dress pants.

In the very same moment the Doctor dodged to the side behind some empty canisters of some sort, a loud blast, followed by strong, bright green light that nearly blinded him disturbed the silence around them.

He could feel shards of some sort and debris raining down on him, gluing themselves to his hair, sticking to his skin as he made a desperate attempt to run into the ruins of an abandoned building, which he hoped would prove as a good hiding spot.

Several blasts followed his escape as he made a desperate run for the opposite side of the small plaza they were in, and even more debris followed, this time 'twined with small pieces of glass that landed on him, making small incisions in his skin as he moved faster then he ever had before, trying to reach safety.

"You can run, but you cannot hide, Doctor." Marton's voice bellowed the second the Doctor reached the inside of the ruins and got down to the ground in a long slide that hurt like hell, scratching through the material of his pants and puncturing through the shallow layers of his skin making droplet of deep, red blood come to the surface.

"We have waited for your mate for _so _long, Doctor. Her beauty has been prophesized by our best oracle, the talents she possesses and all the benefits our people would get once she receives the crown..." his voice trailed off for a moment. "The possibilities are truly endless." Marton's loud voice boomed around the plaza, accentuating every word.

However, the Doctor had stopped listening somewhere right after the fourth or fifth word. Everything after that had been written off as simple noise by courtesy of his mind and sparks and fireworks seemed to explode in his head, blinding him for a small portion of a minute.

"Ma-mate?" He managed to croak even though he knew it would probably give out his position. The concept seemed foreign, familiar, but not quite possible. The idea alone, of having Rose as his mate, the idea that she might even want _him _that way, sent blood rushing to his private parts, boiling to the point of combustion.

"Well, then you have gotten you information wrong, Marton. Rose and I are not mates and won't ever be." He shrieked in a voice that was definitely not appropriate for a nine-hundred year old male Time Lord.

"Oh no, Doctor, _you _are the one that's wrong, aye. You are in such denial over you body's natural desires and needs that you failed to recognize what was happening right in front of you." Marton chuckled and there was a brief pause between his words, making the Doctor instinctively roll over thanks to years upon years spent fighting in the Time War, the laser blasts missing him by mere inches. He got to his feet, hunched over, and ran over to the eastern corner when he could also get a clear view of Marton, who was fast approaching.

"You may not know this about out race, Doctor, but we have a keen capability of seeing the timelines of soul mates. We have the capability of seeing the way the familiar strands twist and intertwine with someone else's combining their very essences, their very… _souls _into one and I had never seen someone be so vulnerable without their other half by their side… as desperate to find their mate as you, Doctor. Never before." He was advancing still. The Doctor knew he was trapped. He had nothing to around him that he could use as a weapon, except for some sharp-edged rocks, but it was not very likely that Marton was going to give him even a chance to use them.

"If you are so certain that Rose is my mate, Marton, than what right do you have to take her away from me? You know what happens to mates so uniquely bonded when one if them is taken away from the other." _Even if he still didn't believe what Marton had just told him… _it was ridiculous to even be entertaining such a notion.

Then again…

"Oh yes, Doctor, of course we do. But you are missing one vital piece of information. You have been so preoccupied with pushing your own mate away, even though you are absolutely, definitively and utterly aware of just how _dependant _you are of her, that you _never _got to chance to complete the mating process, therefore Ms. Tyler will only feel a minor hurt due to your death, which most certainly wouldn't have been the case had you taken her for yourself in the first place, aye." He was inside. The Doctor was trapped.

It was over.

Even though, the enticing images his mind provided him of Rose were more then enough to make him move again, try to get out and find a different way to get her. His Rose… his _mate. _

The grin that threatened to split his face in two could've powered an entire solar system for centuries on end and the sudden burst of energy he felt helped move his feet across the concrete floor, filled with chunks of large marble and smaller rocks, mixed with branches from the trees that loomed overhead, giving the enclosed space a somewhat darker and more sinister appearance.

"Well then, Marton, that's where I have to disagree with you." He shouted to him cheerfully as he managed to spot a small hole made in a wall, big enough for him to fit through, but not for Marton… he would have to get out from the front of the building. "I, for one, have a strong displeasure when it comes to causing Rose pain and… whether the… um… the mating is finished or not, I simply cannot allow her to feel even the slightest of hurt because of me." Slowly, he walked of the exit and began slipping through as quietly as he could.

"Then that's where we _really _have a problem, Doctor, aye?" Marton's voice sounded from right behind him, freezing his movements and making his fingers clench painfully around the roughed up edges of the small hole, drawing blood that seeped onto the off-beige surface of the wall.

He turned slowly, his mind disappointingly blank with his hands raised in the air. He gulped hard when his eyes connected to the barrel of the futuristic gun that was aimed directly to his forehead. His thoughts were on Rose and just how unbelievably messed up this day had become in such a short time.

Marton's cold eyes stared at him without a hint of mercy or remorse and the Doctor knew better than to beg this time round.

His eyes shut tight without him even being aware of the gesture and images began flashing before his eyes. However, this time wasn't like before.

Usually, every single time he closed his eyes, he could still see them, hear them. Screaming in his head, cursing him and begging with him, pleading, crawling and shouting for someone to put out the fire. For someone to stop the pain. Billions upon billions of voices shouted and screamed inside his head as their horror-filled faces, expressions frozen with terror and disbelief washed over him bringing him to his knees repeatedly, over and over again.

But it was different now. He had Rose. And she was his own personal guardian angel. She fended off his nightmares, keeping them always at bay, holding his hand and offering him all the comfort and assurance she had to offer from her tiny, mortal, human heart, heedless of whether he deserved it or not. She had handed him her life and her love, putting them in his hands for safe-keeping even when at times he wasn't exactly certain he could protect his own. She was his sun and his night, his moon and his day… his goddess of light and love and time and when she as around, he felt truly at home.

He could no longer actually say that he had two hearts because one of them was completely and totally hers; had been hers for a long time, really, even in his previous body when he was all dark and silent and broody with big ears and a leather jacket.

If he was one to talk, he had never been convinced in the strange concept of death that humans seemed to have and the whole 'your whole life flashes before your eyes' thing, but now, as his mind played out every single day, every single hour he had spent with his precious Rose, he supposed that there was a first time for everything.

The memories played out right in front of his eyes and it felt as if he was reliving them anew, all over again.

The Gelth, Downing Street, the Sycorax, New Earth, the Daleks in Utah, then the Game Station, the parallel world, Satellite Five, Sarah Jane, Reinette…

Names, dates, facts and places ran through his head with lighting speed and yet he felt as if time ran in slow motion. He was able to feel everything he had felt at the moment the memories had been made, but this time he also saw things from a somewhat more different perspective then he had at the time.

When the recollections had stopped and frozen at Madame de Pompadour, the Doctor started. He didn't just reminisce anymore, he was actually there and he could see things he hadn't been able to last time.

Once again, as he weaved his way though the ancient 51st century ship, his hearts constricted with love and happiness and self-deprecation as Rose's loud voice sounded over and reached his ears.

"_He knows what he was doing, Mickey, don't you get it. We don't matter. Reinette does…" _she was screaming and Mickey was simply grunting in annoyance, scowling every once in awhile at her. The Doctor's eyes widened as he reached the room in which they were in, sitting awkwardly on the ground, Rose's head in her hands, her fingers pulling at the roots roughly. He couldn't see her face, but judging by the hitch in her breathing and the shaking of her shoulders, he could tell that she was crying. And it broke him all over again because he was finally realizing just what he had done.

"_Reinette matters Mickey, she matters much more than we'll ever be able to understand." _She said softly, tenderly, affection and bitterness clear in her voice as she refused to raise her head and face her ex-boyfriend, the Idiot. _"She's the uncrowned queen of France and if he doesn't save her, things can go very, very wrong in our time." _Finally, she lifted her face and rested it on her knees, which she had pulled to her chest.

The Doctor wanted to hit himself as his face contorted into a painful grimace at the sudden display of Rose's blood-shot, tear-stained face, her eyes red and puffy, her nose running and her chin quivering, but still looking every bit as dignified and beautiful as the Goddess she was within. Mickey-the-Idiot walked over to her and settled on the ground next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, pulling her head to the nook of his shoulders, making soft, hushing sounds.

"_I love him, Mickey, I'm so, so sorry, but I really do. I love him more than I ever thought that I could love anyone." _She whispered softly, her voice muffled. Her voice broke on the last words and she sighed, deeply, tiredly.

"_But Rose, he doesn't love you back, does he? I think that he had just proved that by jumping into that bloody window. Sure, he must care for you, but maybe 's not enough to keep 'im with you."_

The Doctor's jaw clenched and he suddenly wanted to pummel Rickey unconscious and then prove to Rose just how much he loves her, consequences be damned. Fortunately, Rose seemed to have the thing in mind. Her small fist raised and thumped him firmly onto his chest, making him gasp and widen his eyes.

"_Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Mickey; that makes me feel so much better." _She growled at him, a cold, icy glare in her eyes. _"Rose…" _

"_No, Mickey, you still don't get it. I can't give this up." _Rose raised herself from the ground and began gesturing franticly, her voice turning hysterical. _"I can't just get up one day and say 'I've had enough, it's time to go'. It doesn't work like that. I can't leave 'im, 'm not strong enough, Mickey." _He followed her up quickly and pulled her into a hug, caressing her hair and whispering something to her that the Doctor could not hear.

"_You'll never be strong enough for that, sweetheart. But what are you gonna do, Rose. Let's say, he does come back, what are you gonna do then?" _the Doctor found himself listening intently, as if his very life depended on it, which truth to be told, it quite possibly did.

"_Nothin' Mickey._ _I'm gonna do nothin' at all, just like I had done so far. Take what I can get, I've always said." _She attempted for a weak smile and failed terribly and the Doctor was unable to move a muscle, except to stare in shock.

"_What happens when that isn't enough anymore, Rosie?"_

She looked at Mickey, smiling a small, pained, watery smile. _"It will have to be enough_ _because I could never settle for anythin' less, and God knows it could never be anythin' more."_

The Doctor was rendered speechless. For the first time in a very long, really, he couldn't say anything. Didn't even know what to say, in fact.

The whole thing playing out had felt like it had lasted an eternity, but the sudden solid _thump_, as weird as that was, told him it couldn't've been more than mere minutes, maybe even seconds.

He slowly blinked, very, very carefully and was stumped even further when he noticed the ginger-haired woman who had acted so intimate with him only half an hour ago, smirking at him, holding the heel of the gun still in the air, standing over the limp, unconscious body of Marton.

"Had a nice trip down Memory Lane, sweetheart?" she smiled knowingly at him and his bafflement turned to annoyance and if there was once thing the Doctor could do when he was annoyed, or angry, or pissed-off, or mad, or caught in a dead-end, was talk.

"All right, who the hell are and from when the _hell _are you?" all right, maybe he was still suffering from a bit of an aftershock due to what he had just heard.

"Oooh Doctor, that was rude." She chided him, smiling. "That was very, very rude. You've got to work on you manners a bit if you want to keep that foxy body of yours." She smirked again, affection shining clear in her deep, soulful eyes… and the Doctor was rendered speechless… again…

"Anyways, might want to keep this, just in case…" she muttered, her red, full lips puckering a bit as she tucked the gun in the back of her simple blue jeans and covering it with the large blood-red tunic that she had draped over her upper body that was traditional in these parts. "Um, sweetie?" she stopped and raised her head to look at him.

The Doctor started once more. The words he had heard Rose say were twirling around the front of his mind and demanding his attention and the soonest possible moment. He was a step from blocking everything around him, shutting into himself, so that he could analyze them and pick them apart and then put them together just like they deserved.

"Oh, you mean me, don't you? Oh, right, sorry. Why do you keep calling me that, anyway? 'Sides, who are you, you still haven't answered me and just, just, stop calling me that. No one calls me that and I'm not about to let a complete stranger start to..." He rambled distractedly while looking her up and down for any signs as to who she was.

"Still rude, love." She smiled. "Call me River. Professor Doctor River Song." She called out as she pulled out yet another alien… tracking device as if seemed, and began climbing out the small hole in the wall. She stopped talking until she got out and then turned to him, her hands on her hips, a cross expression on her face that had the Doctor's blood run cold for some reason or another.

"Sweetie, didn't you have a mate to save, last I heard?" she questioned him pointedly and the mention of Rose was all it took to get the Doctor springing into action. He climbed out of the small hole in the wall in less than 0.8 milliseconds and had taken to running in a general, unknown direction in the remaining 0.2.

Professor Doctor River Song remained standing in the same spot, a mischievous, wicked glint in her eyes and a small familiar smile obvious on her face, her tongue pointing out between her teeth and all.

A short while after, less then a whole minute in fact, the Doctor returned with a sulking expression on his face and an adorable child-like pout, complete with bunny, wide eyes that could make even the hardest of hearts melt into putty at his feet.

He came to stand in front of River, who immediately dropped the smile from her face and replaced it for a more _professional _smirk, her eyes twinkling at the man who had once proclaimed himself the Time Lord Victorious… or will proclaim himself in the very least, and is Time's Champion.

The Doctor cleared his throat and extended his hand in a very professional manner as well, the words flowing from his mouth even if his eyes still said that he would rather do this on his own than require help.

"Right then, I don't believe we have been properly introduced. I'm the Doctor, and I like to be called strictly that way as well, thanks," he said, looking pointedly at River, to which she just grinned, apparently amused. "And I believe your name was River, yeah. Professor Doctor River Song, not a bad name a have to say… 'sides a professor and a doctor, that's quite the achievement, though of course it depends what kind of a doctor you are and what do you teach… I mean, have had a PhD in… I mean... well... anyway! Now," he dropped his hand without even waiting for her to extend him the same courtesy and introducing herself formally as well, shoving his hands deep into his pockets and grinning impishly. "Mind showing me the way?" his eyes were glinting and River fought the urge to laugh, but at the same time glower at him, 'cause even after all that time she'd spent with him, his mood swings were still giving her whiplashes.

"We, my dear, dear Doctor, aren't _going _anywhere." She said, grabbing his hand and lacing her fingers through his. His surprise was evident and his disappointment palpable, but River cleared that up hastily by adding, "We're teleporting."

With a quick press of a few buttons on the Vortex Manipulator on her wrist, the very unusual duo disappeared in a flash of bright, blue light that illuminated half of the small plaza as the night quickly approached and the preparations for the official festivities were slowly, but steadily being brought to their end.


	3. Playing with the Devil

**So, I _understand _that it's been a while and all, but life's been pretty hectic and in the hope of not boring you to death or worse, boring you from reading the chappie, I let you get right to it. I know that this chapter is shorter than the rest, but I've been doing the chapter outlines yesterday and realized that this has as much chances of ever being put in the category of one-shots as hell has any chances of freezing over. Yeah, dramatic, I know, but very, very true. So, I decided to cut the chapter down a bit and expland the story plot line more, so you'll get everything in a not-so-much slower pace, as I'm not the type of writer who just drags out a fic for chapters and chapter without getting anywhere, but more like... infusing it with more details and adding a bigger background to the characters and the lot. Anyways, that's all from me... Not too sure _what _I think about this chapter. Initially, this was supposed to go a completely different direction, but I suppose that the characters have their own way of making their own stories and we, writers are just the ones that put it down on paper. Or on the computer... **

* * *

She felt cold…

The righteous anger and the boiling rage at her imposed confinement had worn out hours ago.

Now all there was left was anguish and bone-chilling fear as she was left on her own to ponder over her immediate fate as the minutes trickled by, the knowledge that she was well and truly left to protect her own well-fair getting thicker and heavier with each second that passed, permeating the air in the small, dark cell she was in, making her feel dizzy and light-headed.

The strong sense of unwanted solitude and loneliness was steadily getting stronger and the horrifying feeling of claustrophobia was beginning to spread trough her system, making ice flow through her veins instead of blood.

Her alabaster skin was numb and unfeeling as her eyes gazed all around the small, enclosed space; observing, but not really seeing.

From the first moment that she had been taken away from the… from _him_, she had had the worst presumption ever, stuck in her head, taunting her, teasing her, weakening and dulling her strength and desire to fight her capturers.

Her heart told her to wait… to hold on and not to give up, he had always taught her to be better than that, to be better than those people who decided to let go of the struggle and give in to what life brought them next.

But… fact was, it wasn't really him who had told her that, now was it? The man who begged her to trust him, not to give up on him, even when he was at his worst didn't have big brown-eyes and a maniacal, childish grin that hid unbelievable sadness and sorrow that could belong only to one who has lived life long before his time.

No, that wasn't him at all. He was…

He was tall, blue-eyed, bald and big-eared… He was the most wonderful, caring, protective and fierce man she had ever met in her entire existence.

He was the _Doctor_…

And only the Heavens knew how much she wanted him back by her side.

Mind, she didn't necessarily want to leave _this _him either… but… everything was becoming just so hard around him lately…

Her heart, her mind, her very soul felt polluted by him and at moments it was as if he couldn't give a lesser damn about it.

He carried on with his life, doing what he always did, strolling casually into people's lives and waltzing away immediately afterwards, out the back door, per rule.

To a by-passer, she was certain she'd seem as close to a lost puppy trailing after a desired, but-not-actual master as the Doctor resembled a God in his own, true right.

The previous Doctor, _her _Doctor had let her into his life. He had taken her in, taught her everything he could, everything he was allowed to teach and made her about a thousand times better than she used to be.

With him, there was no Time Lord or Human… no Gallifrey or Earth… no race, no species, no planets… no differences what so ever. They were simply the Doctor and Rose, two people, equals in all things, simply passing through this Universe in a rush, fixing things and making them better, laughing and dancing even when they were faced with their impending, inevitable deaths simply because they were _together_. And when they were together, they knew that they could do anything…

Rose knew she was getting sidetracked. This was by no means the time, _or the place _for that matter to be whining and crying over her lost, one true chance at happiness and a life outside of the confinements of the Powell Estates that, should she ever come back, would irreversibly condemn her to an existence as a mere shop girl, with no A-levels, no decent job – or a decent paycheck, and no future what so ever. At least not one she would have desired for herself, that is.

Finally snapping herself out of her daze, her eyes flew from the gray, chipped walls, to the steel door designed to keep her inside and was reinforced with some sort of a power field that crackled with electricity, taunting her, warning her to stay away even at the distance she was keeping from it, to the small window-like opening in the high, northern corner of the room, to the tiny puddle on the floor that had a deep burgundy color and the most ghastly smell of copper and iron, mixed with salt and some other chemicals Rose couldn't discern.

Slowly, a frown firmly planted on her face, she stood, stretching her stiff muscles and massaging her neck and what she could reach of her back, cursing the coolness and hardness of the floor that had served as a bed for her during the last quarter of a day or so.

Tentatively, hesitance and uncertainty literally pouring off of her in waves, she carefully strolled to the little pond in the corner of the room, a shaking hand reached out in front of her with trepidation, whether to actually reach out and touch the blood red liquid or to protect herself if somehow… she wasn't sure about the mechanics of it, but it was possible that the fluid suddenly… leapt in the air and lunged at her. Stupid and pretty unlikely as it may be, after everything she'd seen and done, she just knew that she wasn't taking any chances.

Then again, she _was _most likely to be dead either way and her curiosity _was _piqued immensely, considering that, disgusting odor aside, there was a soft pull on her mind, a feeling that she could connect quite closely to mind intrusion that was… compelling her, transfixing and forceful in its intention to get her to touch the mysterious liquid in front of her.

She inched closer still, hands still in front of her and her eyes looking viciously at the puddle, narrowed dangerously, and masking the fear that suffocated her every pore when she suddenly found that her legs had begun carrying her forward on their own accord, without her mind making any conscious decision about it.

Crouching down in front of the ominous-looking _thingy_, Rose closed her eyes and breathed out a huff. She quietly chided herself, pushing her fear and suspicion away from the front of her mind, locking them in a distant, unreachable corner of her brain and opened her eyes, her lips set in a straight line, her whole face seemingly calm and serene, but the slight pull of her eyebrows alluding to a hint of utter devotion and determination.

Her concentration was absolute and without anyone around to make her waver or break her resolve, her fingers loomed perilously close to the maroon colored puddle at her feet. Her eyes narrowed and suddenly, without thinking it trough, she thrust her fingers in it, closing her eyes in mad anticipation that had her heart racing and the fear breaking free from its cage and creeping right back onto her.

She waited…

_One second… two seconds… three… nothing…_

"Eeewww, gross." Rose's exclaim echoed throughout the empty cell as she quickly pulled back, clutching at her hand, watching the thick, slimy liquid running down her fingers, onto her wrist and beyond, shuddering against the tinkling, giddy feeling that spread through her skin and within her bloodstream everywhere the fluid touched.

"Yeah, that might not have been the brightest idea you've ever had."

Jumping at the voice, her vocal cords already vibrating strongly, the scream just waiting to be released from her throat, she was stunned when in only a few short steps, a shadow whose face she had yet to see twisted her around and placed his arm over her waist, effectively trapping her arms, and covering her mouth with his own hand.

Eyes wide, she began trashing wildly, her mind deciding to release that pending scream and many that followed right after it, her legs moving around trying to find a way to kick the stranger where it hurt. Her heart was beating at a staccato beat, faster then it ever had before and anguish was running through her, increasing the pumps of adrenaline that had already possessed her thoroughly, blocking her ability to think straight and come up with a strong, fail-proof plan to get away.

"Shh, hush now." The stranger whispered, his lips pressed to her ear sending tremors that Rose would rather die than admit to and she couldn't help, but notice the quiet, yet unyielding authority his voice was infused with.

Husky, low and strangled, it sent tingles up and down her spine and suddenly, Rose was more than just aware of just how intimately their bodies were pressed together. The warmth that flowed through his hands suddenly shot through her and Rose nearly whimpered as she felt the hand that was at her waist inch even lower, going past her hips and staying there.

"I won't hurt you, I promise." He whispered again and Rose internally swore. There it was again, the same tremor as before, this time accompanied by the unshakeable feeling of familiarity that seemed to emanate from him, seeping into her, right down to her very bones.

"So, if you could just stop moving around and screaming so much - you do know that the only thing you'll manage by that is exhausting yourself and hurting your throat, don't you?" Rose glared at nowhere in particular, suddenly whishing that he was standing in front of her, but settled for nuzzling her mouth against his hand, satisfaction flooding her entire system as she heard his sharp intake of breath and the slight release in his hold, managing to use it to her advantage and opening her lips just enough to deliver a hard, solid bite.

His curse was loud and utterly blush inducing, his hand moving away from her mouth and curling to his body instinctively and in pure agony. Once again, Rose smiled to herself as she used her free arm to aim an elbow to his ribs. When her elbow made contact with his torso, he exhaled sharply and she used the momentum to raise a leg, then slam in down against his toes, wriggling away from him and to the other side of the cell, watching him grunt in pain and doubling over as he held his ribs, holding his weight on only one of his legs.

"Who _are _you?" She spat out venomously, glaring daggers in his direction, still cursing him internally, her anger coming mostly from her instantaneous reaction and pure revolting _arousal _to his closeness, rather than anything else. "What do you want from me?" she continued undeterred as he raised himself, bracing himself on the wall, the pain from her hits seeming to finally ebb away.

His throaty chuckle echoed around her, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand and an unwanted thrill to cut through her lower abdomen.

He finally stood at his full height, his tall, well-toned frame intimidating even at the distance Rose had put between them, his hand coming up the pull the hood of his jacket away from his way.

Rose held her breath in anticipation and gasped in shock as the hood was pulled back to reveal what was probably the most handsome man she had seen in her entire life.

Tall and slim, with angular and sharp features, his lips sinfully full and still curved in a smirk. His eyes were the likes of which she had never seen before, the color of pure liquid ice, hard and demanding; completely and utterly mesmerizing, transfixing her, capturing her in their unwavering gaze. His skin was pale and perfect and his hair was as black as a raven's, full and lush and making her want to walk up to him just so she can run her fingers through it over and over and over again.

"Feisty," he commented as calmly and casually as if they were discussing the weather. "Then again, I didn't expect anything else, coming from you." His smirk was back and Rose found herself staring at the movement of his lips, his words passing by her completely undetected.

"Wh-what?" she managed to rasp out, hating that her voice sounded so weak and childish. Who the heck did he think he was, anyway? He had no right to do this. Rose was supposed to be kidnapped and waiting for the Doctor to rescue her, while trying to come up with some sort of a game plan when that finally happened.

With a start, Rose gave a sharp cry of outrage and annoyance at herself as she realized that since this… this _man _had shown up in front of her, this had been the first time she had even thought of the Doctor. That had never happened before. Ever. Sure, Rose was bound to meet a few good-looking guys here and there during her travels with him and she even went as far as to flirt with them and tease them, but none of them had ever had the power to quite literally _erase _the Doctor from her mind.

However, this man had managed to do it, all in a span of what was probably less than 10 minutes _and _he had her thinking that he was here to kill her during half of that time. As a matter of fact, she still wasn't too sure in regards of that. Yet.

As if reading her mind, the _familiar _stranger gave a well-rehearsed roll of his eyes and smirked a cocky grin, leaning on the wall and folding his arms on his chest and lowered his head.

Rose shivered as she looked back at him and noticed him staring at her under his eyelashes, his posture the image of pure calmness, but also that of pure, intentional seduction.

"You never answered my question." She bit back, steeling her resolve and doing her best to at least appear to be as calm as he was, but judging by the knowing twinkle in his eyes, she was probably failing.

"And you, my dear, bit me." He answered back, just as haughtily, his voice a few octaves lower and suddenly dangerous. "I don't like it when people do things like that."

"Yeah, well, you mustn't have met many people then." Rose continued, finding it a bit easier to hold her resolve when she wasn't looking at him.

In a flash, he had her pinned against the wall, his hand on her throat, Rose wincing as her head collided sharply with the wall.

He sat still for a few seconds, unmoving and as still as a statue as he searched her face for something. Suddenly, he grinned and pulled back, leaving Rose to try and put herself together as the pain from her head started to spread.

"If you must know though, sweetheart, _I_," he gestured at his body, clad in combat boots, black jeans, black muscle-friendly shirt and a leather jacket that clung to him. "Am your dear husband-to-be." His grin fell and he walked over to her again, pressing his body flush against Rose's and a smirk graced his face as she gasped out a breath sharply, avoiding to look at him.

His hands pulled her chin up roughly so that she would face him, but she still kept her eyes averted from him.

"Look at me." His voice was once again laced with authority and left room for no discussion. Rose could feel her breathing growing faster and shallower, sweat breaking out on her forehead and her heart once again picking up speed as she felt his… whomever he was, body pressing up against her, their joint bodies, a seemingly perfect fit as they aligned just right and she _felt_ the desire she heard infused in his voice. She shook her head lightly, filling her head with images of her time with the Doctor, both of them, and shutting out the reality of the situation she had found herself in, somehow knowing that she would crumble and falter under his heated gaze and impenetrable mask coldness and indifference.

"I said look at me, Rose Tyler." He rasped again, nearing his lips to her neck, capturing both of her hands in one of his and raising them above her head, pinning them to the wall. "I don't take lightly to people who disobey me." His voice had dropped to a mere whisper and she finally raised her eyes to his.

What she found there, however, both shocked her and filled with such anticipation that she wasn't even sure if she could ever, in a billion years, explain the feeling.

His eyes were filled with unspoken promises and bridling passion just waiting to boil over. The mask that she had managed to recognize easily thanks to her time with the Doctor had fallen away and his eyes were bared to her along with his very soul. Every secret that he has ever kept was hers. His pain, his happiness, sadness… all of it was now just as much her burden to bear as it was his and she was startled and scared out of her wits as she managed to discern the same look of ancient sadness and vulnerability and pain and loss that _her_ Doctor bore in _his _eyes, all the time, even though he tried to hide it.

"It can't be…" she whispered, her eyes widening at the same time as his as he seemed to catch himself and realize his mistake. He pulled away sharply and walked away from her, using the moment whilst she was still caught in a trance-like state, brought forth from the impossibility... and... well... impossibility of the last 6 hours, 24 minutes and 38 seconds, accoring to his own calculations.


	4. Hide and Seek with Death

**This chapter is the last one will see from Rose's POV (or future Doctor's POV) whichever you prefer. Next chapter we're heading back to the present Doctor and River and we'll also have a slight time jump. Now, don't forget, as usual, I'm an evil, evil person (or at least my plot bunnies are), so everything that you see in this chapter is just a bit different than it looks at first sight. I think I've dropped more than enough hints and I'd like to see if anyone is clever enough (no offense) to figure it out this early. Just let me tell ya, before I wrote this chapter, even I didn't have a single clue of what would happen. Hope you enjoy it... **

**ALSO, reviewers for this chapter get a short MM from the next one, centering around the Tenth Doctor and River... **

* * *

As he sat crouched low on the ground with his hands covering his face, a small, sad smile made its way on his face.

He should've known that she would figure him out. After all, she was _Rose_. His brilliant, loving, _perfect _Rose who accepted him with all his flaws and misgivings and always took him back no matter what he did. He could only hope she would be able to forgive him for what he was about to do.

He stood up slowly, turning around to see his favorite pink and yellow human still pressed to the wall, one hand on her chest, her gaze uncertain and confused, if a little afraid as well.

He suddenly hated himself. But he also knew that it had to be done.

He was a Time Lord. He walked through the Universe, _danced _through it, and for all the destruction and mayhem and deaths he had caused during his long, long life, she was his only stability.

His lifeline, his personal beacon of light and sunshine and hope. The one who made it all better and the only one who had ever known the real _him_.

Forget Reinette, the 16th century courtesan. She didn't know him. She only believed she did. Rose, albeit not herself at the time was the only person who had ever known the entire extent of the darkness that festered within him and ate away at his blackened hearts and damaged broken soul. The only one who recognized the deathly ghosts that had taken residence inside his head so, so long ago along with the rage and the pure, unadulterated _madness _that raged within him, constantly streaming through his veins and polluting his mind, corrupting him and threatening to throw him over the edge.

And she hadn't even thought twice about it. _My Doctor_, she had said. She had destroyed his worst enemies and ended a war that raged through entire galaxies and constellations and planets, leaving nothing but space dust and charred, mutilated bodies in its wake. She, a not-so-simple shop girl from London, with no 'A' levels, no decent wage and a life in the run down Powell Estates, had done that for him, not even batting an eyelash when confronted with the uncertain outcome of her own well being.

And he absolutely adored her for it.

He was going to do this for her, just like he remembered doing before, consequences and Time Laws be damned. Nothing mattered more than his Rose. He could calmly stand back and watch entire Universes get wiped before his very eyes and his hearts wouldn't stutter for even a millisecond as long as she was there.

He carefully arranged his expression in a teasing smirk, his eyes sparkling that little more at the sharp tremor that ran through her at the action and the defiant raise of her chin coupled with the hardening of her eyes as she glared at him, the challenge clear in her expression.

His grin grew wider when she didn't back down or move away when he started to approach her like any other sane, normal person would've done. Instead, she moved forward carefully until she stood in front of him, with an undecipherable look on her face.

"Do-D-Doctor?" His gaze turned hard and vacant in the same instant when her weak and trembling voice reached his ears and he cringed against it, recoiling instinctively.

He hated to see Rose weak. He loved her exuberance, her child-like innocence and wide-eyed wonder during their explorations. Always so eager, so jubilant and determined to _know_, to see and hear everything.

He didn't like her like this. She rarely showed weakness and while he always knew when it was there, while he always knew when her fears and nightmares reduced her to shaking shoulders and hot tears and a bleeding lip so no one would hear her torment and the torrent of pain and hurt that bubbled up within her, there were few times when she had let herself be in front of him, with all her insecurities and buried fears.

And now, after only such a short time for her, her anguish and desperation were directed towards him anew. He wasn't sure he could take it.

"What?" he ground out, his voice rough and curt as made a snap decision.

Awaiting no answer, he grabbed her by the shoulders, pushing her back into the cold, jagged stone wall behind her, his mouth claiming hers in a searing, almost punishing kiss.

He ignored her cries and pleads, pushing them to the back of his mind as his lips worked over hers, coaxing them and softening them in absolute surrender in the fight she still foolishly sought to win.

Her lips remained stubbornly closed, her small, tender hands hitting his torso weakly in an attempt to push him away. _Minx_, a voice in his mind groaned.

He was well aware that she was enjoying herself just as much as he was. The hardening of the soft, lavender peaks of her pert, nimble breasts against his chest, her ragged breathing and the staccato beat of her heart that nearly matched that of his own two alerted him to a very exiting prospect he was suddenly eager to examine.

A heady, intoxicating smell surrounded the small chamber in which they were in on his own specific demand and he felt like he was drowning in the delicious aroma that poured from Rose, no matter how much she resisted. Her pleas were nothing but a last ditch attempt to make herself feel that she was _not _betraying _her _Doctor with her actions and her apparent revulsion with him nothing but a plain façade.

Everything about her told him so. He could feel it on his tongue as he softly nibbled on her lips and teased the warm, pliant flesh with his tongue. He could sense her blood pulsing madly, white-hot and ablaze, as his hands explored every secret and unimportant imperfection Rose Tyler hid with her clothes, starting from the base of her skull, to the softness of her neck and breast bone, down to her sides and arms, then her thighs and bum.

The air around them thrummed and crackled with electricity and Rose could feel a strange warmth spreading through her over-excited nerve endings, through her blood before setting in a pit low in her belly.

Her mind screamed at her, pleaded with her to stop, but she found that her body suddenly had a mind of its own and refused to resist as the… _Doctor's_, her skin sang to her, hands lowered to her rump and gave a sharp tug, forcing her to jump from the ground and lock her legs around his waist, while his tongue licked and nibbled her closed lips, down her jaw line and latched on that little sensitive cleft of skin right behind her ear that she never knew she had.

Her hands latched around his neck, forming a crown as a low, guttural moan reverberated through her chest and her vocal chords at the new sensations this position caused her. Her legs tightly locked around his hips, she felt the physical evidence of this man's want and need for her, pressing against her core, the friction almost too much to bear.

The warmth in her lower abdomen tightened into a coil, a sharp fire igniting and setting her alight as his lips found hers again.

His hands dug into her thighs, struggling to keep her weight with such harshness she was certain it would leave a bruise, even through her clothing.

As his lips reached her own, his eyes snapped open and like an invisible force, challenged her to look back. The cerulean orbs were dark and nearly black, the lust swirling around them, giving them an ethereal twinkle that astoundingly managed to suppress the look of sadness and guilt that usually resided within them.

A shiver ran through her heated flesh, a dampness she hadn't felt in a long time gliding down her inner thighs, soaking her lacy underwear. The Doctor's hips began a rolling motion, causing the contact between them to increase, making them both moan out loud in primal satisfaction.

Rose couldn't believe what was happening. Her head was spinning and that nagging voice in the back of her head immediately grew louder and her slight moment of clarity as she gazed dazedly with heavy lidded eyes, hazy from passion and craving into his blue eyes that held entire worlds in them, worlds that were dying, living, begging, burning, always burning.

_Blue, not brown remember, now snap out of it, _her mind screamed.

But it was all gone too soon. Her miniscule grip on reality fell away again and everything around her felt like a distant dream as one of his hands reached up from her bum and grasped her hair, propelling her forwards harshly. Her gasp was all he required from her as his tongue thrusted sharply within her mouth, his moves now faster and rougher than she would've ever expected from him, from the Doctor.

But Rose no longer cared. Stars exploded behind her eyes and teeth collided with teeth and tongues and lips crashed together in prepares for the oldest of dances ever known to mankind.

His tongue probed, teased and explored every crevice and orifice of her mouth. The moment Rose stopped being passive and became an active participant in their little game, his hand left her hair and traced the soft patches of skin down to the zipped of her hoodie, sharply pulling the zipper down, his nimble and long fingers nearly circling her entire breast, squeezing forcefully.

A new wave of arousal at the action caused Rose to cry out sharply in the Doctor's mouth as his once again pressed his erection into her center, a sly smirk gracing his lips as his tongue danced haughtily with hers. Her fingers latched into his hair, pulling, tugging and scratching harshly, pulling her even closer to him, unable to _not_ crave the little reprieve that this episode would bring forth.

So what if she did this? So what if she gave her aching body and broken heart a little reprieve from the hot and cold dance that the Doctor made her follow?

_It's not as if he would remember it…_

This Doctor was here, now and he seemed to want her. For Rose, that was enough.

Her own Doctor may be unable to get rid of her soon enough, but this one seemed to want just the opposite.

And perhaps it would be alright. Perhaps, as long as she kept her eyes tightly closed, she could imagine that this man was him.

That the hair she was threading her fingers through was a warm, dark, rich brown instead of raven black. That the muscled and chiseled body that was pressed so intimately against hers so that not even a nanomillimeter was left between them was in fact thin and wiry, with bony hips and freckled chest and a mole on his back.

She could pretend that the voice that whispered in her ear of all the naughty, dirty things he wanted to do to her while he suckled hard on the joint of neck and shoulder wasn't deep and rough and menacing, but instead warm and chipper and high and just _slightly_ girlish.

She could pretend. It was the only thing she had left. Her shattered heart wasn't something that anyone besides _her _Doctor had the power to mend. But her body… that was easy.

After all, she was a _human_. A _stupid, little ape_. And this was what stupid little human apes like her did. They shagged their problems away until everything was fine and dandy again.

Just because she was travelling with the high and mighty Time Lord didn't mean that she had to be any different…


	5. Dancing across Dimensions

Hello boys, girls and other extra-terrestrials (you know who you are). Welcome to the fifth chapter of Love or Death. I'n not gonna bore you with details, lets just say that I'M lucky I managed to get this chapter out (only a month after the last update, belive me, with the way my life is going, it's a record).

First of all, I want to say thanks to **Dreamcatcher49**,** Kenshin13**,** A Who down in Whoville**and** Potterlover12**. You guys ROCK! Thanks so much for you reviews and your supports.

Also, don't get me wrong, but this chapter is dedicated to **Potterlover12**, just today I read his reply to the MM I sent out in last chapter and I have to admit, it was THE biggest ego boost I had ever felt in my life. Thanks so much, I really, really, really appreciate your words. However, believe me, there was a time when my writing as well would have hurt to read. You should just see my rough drafts from when I was 11-12 years old. They would make you WEEP... Funny how far a person can come in just six short years, yeah? Also, this was written in response to your MM. For a month, inspiration wouldn't strike, I read your MM and BAM, my plot bunnies/muses come running back. Then again, my Literature proffesor always says that if all the writers in this world wait for inspiration to strike, no one would EVER write ANYTHING, so...

On another note, just the other day, I was reading this book from Susan Robinson, not quite sure what it was called and it had a Mr. Tennant in it. Nearly no one called him by his name and even if they did, I can't remember it. Point it, isn't it just weird that every time I read '_Mr. Tennant_', my mind flew to David Tennant. I mean the guy was BLOND and had BLUE eyes. Geesh, talk about a fan-girl crush.

Not quite sure I like this chapter, sort of went out of hand after word one. One of the reasons why I'm so late even if the chapter was done like ages ago was that Chibi!Doctor and Chibi!River that currently reside in my head didn't like what they read and made me press the delete button, THEN made me write the chapter anew. Sorry if you don't think it was any good. And when you get to the end, don't pull out your pitchforks/broomsticks/revolvers/tomatoes and other belonging members of the vegetables group, we still have a while to go.

OH, AND BEFORE I FORGET, I'M COMPOSING A PLAYLIST FOR THIS STORY AND I WANT THIS TO BE YOUR CHALLENGE FOR NEXT CHAPTER. SENT ME A PM WITH A SONG THAT YOU LIKE AND THINK IT FITS. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE CHARACTER-CENTRAL, JUST AS LONG AS IT FITS WITH CANNON (NOT REALLY THO, SINCE FROM 13 SONGS I HAVE ALREADY, 9 ARE DOCTOR/ROSE CENTRIC) AND/OR THE STORY. THOSE OF YOU WHO SEND ME A SONG WILL GET AN MM FROM NEXT CHAPTER AND A CHAPTER DEDICATION.

All things that have even a remote link to techo-bable in this chapter are invented (well, most of them) if I got anything wrong, feel free to tell me. BTW, the MM from last chapter picks up after the end of this one, with a slight time jump, obviously.

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO... ENJOY!

* * *

The first thing he felt upon waking up was the pain.

It was the kind of pain he could never possibly name or even remotely describe. It was nearly like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands or attempting to describe the scent of one's presence. Taking their very essence and core, the quintessence which made one who they were and bottling it for the world to feel.

All of his senses were alight and throbbing. The hurt and desperation he had no recollection of ever feeling had rooted itself in the center of his chest, in between his hearts, pulsing, aching, _bleeding _with a near destructive force and desolation, the only remnant of a not-quite-dream.

His head pounded and his limbs twisted and intertwined awkwardly as a faint, female voice whispered in a distant part of his brain, first begging, then pleading and finally walking away… always walking away.

He felt a shattered man and he couldn't even begin to comprehend it. It was almost like a memory, a whisper or an echo of a life not-yet-lived. A fixture he could not change, but had the potential and even more, the kinetic force necessary to turn him into a shadow wandering through the world. A simple ghost, the walking undead roaming through the realm of the living, not truly gone, but missing a vital, irreplaceable part of thy self.

And that was just the start of it.

Even with his eyelids firmly shut against the onslaught of the excruciating, bright light shimmering upon him, he could see the golden timelines dancing in front of him. Twisting, coiling, bending and retracing themselves in a nearly wild, crazed fashion as he had never witnessed before, erasing and writing and erasing yet again, over and over and over again, almost as if Time itself had gone haywire. Those magical, burning stranding and wisps of gold and purple and red and silver he used to revel and shy away from, hate and love all in the same time now caused him to flinch away, to want to run away and hide until the tide in the vast ocean of Time came to pass and _never _look back.

He felt them wounding around him, binding him, securing him to a chain of events he knew he could not escape, but would try his damnest to do so.

He suddenly had the strangest sensation of not being able to breathe, the whispering voice in his head growing in intensity, the soft, tender murmurs turning into raw, primal cries and screams and calls for help he could not, would not, must not respond to. Ever.

And it began to kill him. Agonizingly slow in its progress, terrifyingly quick in its purpose, it began to eat away at him from the inside. And he didn't even know why.

The burning started to spread, forcing his muscles to contract and his veins to strain against the powerful blitz of inferno coursing through him. His eyes screwed tightly shut, a rough growl of agony ripped through his mind, his lips parting open the only physical sign of his internal battle with himself

Images flashed before his closed eyelids, powerful and unremitting, searing, scorching and sizzling him as he felt each emotion behind each scene. A flash of blue, blond and white light whipped inside him as a cold, unforgiving wind threatened to carry him away into oblivion, in a realm where darkness reigned and no life or death roamed. Invariability was this realm's prerogative and he positively dreaded it. He heard a scream, then a metallic voice that sent knives down his spine along with a sharp throb. He could see it now, the white, white wall that would be his ultimate demises, the final stop for the last of the Time Lords.

And that was when he started to realize. The knowledge of these images, these _memories _he had yet to make was crawling just on the outsides on his brain, drifting on the outlines of his consciousness.

And then… it _stopped_…

A sharp gasp tore through his mouth as he propelled himself forwards, immediately regretting the action as it sent another wave of soreness and pain through his system.

"I thought I lost you for a moment there, dear." A soft, melodic voice from his right echoed in the air, carried on the undercurrents of the wind and to his ears and he winced, the lowest of low volume of the whispered confession feeling like a mauve alert siren magnified and ringing directly in his ear drums.

"Ouch." The Doctor's hand ran to his head and clutched it tightly as if it would make the headache go away.

Chancing a glance to his right, his saw River's sympathetic eyes smiling down upon him, a frown written clearly on her face and he glared at her fiercely. Weeell, as much as a man in his current state of being could, but it counted as a glare nonetheless.

"I _am_ sorry, if it's of any worth. I didn't know that any teleporting devices, besides those that carry the Dershin's bio-signature and stamp were blocked. I woke up not too long ago as well. On that note, for your consolation, the pain will pass soon." She smiled at him, a small, nearly unnoticeable smile full of regret and apology, but the Doctor was in far too much pain to care whether he was rude or not. At least, according to some logic his muddled brain could come up with.

"Apparently, not soon enough." He growled fiercely, as he made to move from the ground.

River jumped up immediately as well, the wobbling of her legs and unsteadiness of her posture blindingly obvious, moving herself to him in a moments notice, laying a protective hand on his waist to hoist him up and stabilize him, but he just glared at her coldly, daring her to leave her arms where they were.

He watched, unfazed, as her lips formed a thin line and her eyes widened, her face gaining a sickly, ash color. Her hands dropped immediately to her sides and she lowered her head. Typically a cool, collected, 'never-letting-herself-be-fazed' type of woman, River had one weakness and one weakness alone.

And he was standing right in front of her at that very moment.

The Doctor truly didn't know what had come over him. River wasn't his enemy, in fact, she was _helping _him and he'd be damned if he knew what to make of his behavior towards her.

Yes, his head was still hurting and yes, it was partially her fault, but just like she said, it was already subsiding and his mind already felt much, much clearer.

It was more than that. There seemed to be an unfamiliar, unreasonable anger boiling in him, spilling over the edges and perhaps, River being the only one around him, she was the only one who could take the brunt of it. But it wasn't fair. She wasn't the one responsible for what he was feeling. In fact, he wasn't quite sure if he even had anyone to blame. There seemed to be the weirdest of sensations floating inside him, like there was something waiting, just lingering until it was noticed. But he couldn't reach it.

And as usual, per Doctor's orders, he ignored it. Pushed it even further from his mind than it already was and focused on coming up with an apology for this strange, strange woman in front him, who had done nothing wrong except being far too forwards and just slightly misinformed.

"River?" his voice was weak all of the sudden and he pondered on that for less than a second.

"I'm sorry, Doctor, I really am, I should've at least asked first." She kept her head down, and her usually level, steadfast voice seemed choked.

The Doctor gulped hard. "Nah, it's okay. As long as we're not too far away…" he trailed off before a realization fell upon him. "Where _are _we, by the way?"

Finally, River raised her head and shook it disbelievingly at the completely chipper voice of the Doctor and his easy, relaxed posture.

"Within the _claste _itself, prisoner's ward, I think. It would seem that we were being tracked and the moment the signal from the Vortex Manipulator was intercepted and we passed out, we were brought inside."

"Oh… _oh_…" the Doctor grinned with complete and utter happiness as something inside his mind clicked into place and bright, golden light filled him again, the presence he had missed finally claiming its rightful place once more.

_Rose… she was close… __oh, she was so close…_

He thought he could burst from the excitement that washed through him as the feeling of peace and comfort filled his hearts and warmed his insides and suddenly, the world seemed a much, much brighter place to live in.

He would see his Rose soon… all was right with the Universe, at long last. And this time, he wasn't letting her go, ever.

"What are you grinning about?" River's inquisitive voice brought him out of his musing and he giggled at her, yes, actually _giggled_, it was possible for fully grown men, even those that had over nine hundred years on their résumé to giggle, before sauntering over to her and giving her his trademark, megawatt, thrilled-bordering-on-maniacal grin.

"Can't you guess?" he answered with a question of his own, a funny glint in his eyes and a mischievous expression on his face as her turned away from her and scanned their surroundings.

Standard holding cell, he concluded after a sweeping inventory of the room.

A small window high, high on the wall, not nearly big enough to make an escape even if you managed to get that high up the wall. There was no bed or table or even a _mirror_ – shame really, he truly did like having a mirror in his prison cell, that way he could plan his escape, or his and Rose's most often and still look _foxy_ and _stylish_ while doing it, and the door was reinforced with what seemed to be a gamma-charged/electrical alpha pulses force field which would most definitely kill a lesser race like humans and certainly inflict serious damage upon a higher ranked one such as the Time Lords.

Thankful that at least they had allowed him, as well as River – his coat was gone however and that was a big, _big_ mistake, one for which the Dershins would pay dearly if anything happened to it, to keep their clothes, he began digging through his pockets for his screwdriver or anything else that was even remotely sonic, already thinking through various, non-painful, easy-yet-scary punishments to dish out if anything happened to his coat… _to Rose_… if anything happened to his Rose.

"Doctor," River seemed to be back into her usual, easy-going, flirtatious mood and her teasing was quite obvious in her voice, "you're frowning now. What's going through the Big, big brain of the Big, big Time Lord?" She smiled at him innocently even though he could not see her face, too busy excavating every single thing he had ever put in his pockets, digging his hands in all the way up to his forearms.

"Oh, nothing much, just looking for my sonic, thinking of a way to get out, thinking of a way to get Rose out and trying to come with a well-deserved punishment if anything bad happened to my coat…" he stopped himself and shook his head, "to Rose, if anything happened to Rose, yeah, that's what I was going to say."

"Riiight," River smirked as she pushed herself from the wall and began approaching the Doctor, "I'll just pretend I'll believe that than."

When she was standing at less than a foot away from him, she raised her hands and closed her eyes.

_Left inside breast pocket. Place you hand inside just about to little above your wrist, go to the left and then move a little to the right. You'll find what you need there._

Opening her eyes again, she grasped the Doctor's wrists, pulling them away and shaking her head at him smilingly before following the given instruction and quickly hitting jack pot.

Ignoring the Doctor's cry of protest, she pulled her hand out and smirked triumphantly as the object in her hand turned out to be exactly what they needed to get out of here. It wasn't as effective as the sonic screwdriver, true, but it would work for the time being.

She brought her hand to the Doctor and opened her palm. The small, rectangular object that resided there was blinking and flashing a deep, red color and making an easy, pleasant whirring sound, almost identical to the sound of the TARDIS. Identical to the sound of the Universe screeching to a halt, many have said.

"Wh-what? How did you know that was there? How did you… _I _didn't know that was there, River, now how could you?" he asked completely bemused and just slightly bewildered, raising hand to his hair instinctively.

Her lips may have spoken the lie, but you could see the truth in her eyes.

It was only too bad this regeneration of the Doctor wasn't very good at catching those things. "Just luck, I guess." Her face was positively beaming and her grin nearly rivaled his.

In her palm now resided a small bio-elektral dampener. Sort of had the same function of the regular bio-dampener, but instead of shielding sentient being and erasing their bio-signature, this handy, little thing served to effectively decrease an electrical field of any kind, including the one that held them here by a preset percentage by the user. However, it's only techno-design flaw was that there was no possibility of completely discharging the field – lessening the charge to zero Volts/Amperes/Heitz/Sheenings etc., so a little zing was a partial and quite possible… possibility.

The two misplaced travelers in time didn't seem to be too, too concerned by this, though. Both of them were on a mission and it was absolutely necessary for both of them to complete it.

For one of them, finding their way out of here meant that they would restore their piece of mind and a vital part of their existence, for the other, getting their entire life back.

Completely focused and dedicated to their new found mission, the unlikely couple set to enabling the handy device and measuring the electrical charge the force field holding them was emitting, whilst trying to calculate the necessary decrease of force in the circuit so that they could both get out with the most minimal injuries possible.

"How are you doing?" The Doctor seemed a bit too excited and anxious as the moment of truth approached that many times he forgot to control his voice volume, the fact that they were in a building full of armed, shoot-first-ask-later guards completely slipping from his mind.

"Doctor!" River admonished as she squatted about 10 feet from the door, trying to slowly and carefully approach it just a little closer for a successful measure. "I'm doing fine, almost there. Now stop talking, sweetie, you asked me that not two full minutes ago."

_1 minute, 25 seconds and 13 nanoseconds, _her mind supplied. Rolling her eyes at her own silliness, a small side-smile came to her lips as she set about her task, the Doctor's stethoscope that they had managed to dig out magnifying the sounds of the cracking noises coming of the electrical current when in contact with the dampener, trying to equate the strength of it with the best level of reduction.

Fully focused, she started when a sharp cry sound from the Doctor, losing her balance and falling forwards, straight into the bubble surrounding the doorway. Built to repel, the bubble threw her away and into the opposite wall, where she landed with a harsh thump and stars exploded behind her eyelids after her head made contact with the jagged stones.

A soothing presence immediately clouded her mind, forming a shield against the pain and making a small, nearly unconscious smile to erupt on her face as she struggled to open her eyes and crawl to the Doctor who seemed to be convulsing on the floor.

The darkness was pulling him under again, dragging him into a sea of orange skies and silver grass and scarlet mountains. His head throbbed and his hearts were pounding away at a maddening rhythm, driving him crazy, increasing the pain in his head by tenfold.

In black and white, with rips and tears, almost like he was watching a mute movie from the 1920s, a scene appeared in front of his eyes.

He landed on the hard floor roughly and quickly stood, not wanting to be at odds with whomever his attacker was, before catching himself and realizing that this was all in his mind. But who…?

And then he saw it…

_Rose… _His Rose, pressed up against another man, a man that was not _him_, her legs around his waist and him suckling her neck roughly.

A startled cry ripped through him when he realized that the… that the… the… _pleasure _must have been so intense for her that it caused her usual quiet hum in the back of his mind to increase in magnitude and pull him under.

He could feel it. The pleasure, the passion, the satisfaction… And he couldn't stand it. He didn't understand it and he hated it and once again, that irrational anger and rage that took over him boiled in his bloodstream.

"I went and did it again." He mused angrily, mocking his previous self's words. "Went and picked up another stupid ape." In his heart of hearts – or was it hearts of hearts, the Doctor knew it wasn't true.

Rose wasn't really at fault here. He knew that he had held the higher cards in this little game that the two of them had been playing and all along, he had been calling all the shots that would push her away from him, making the completely wrong moves.

And he couldn't change it anymore, even though he would've at a moment's notice.

Rose had apparently found an appeasing distraction during her time here and while he was not pleased with it – oh, who was he kidding – while he _despised _it, the only thing he could and had to make sure to do was to make sure Rose knows where both of them stand from now on – and it wouldn't really hurt for him to found out the same thing – and take her back home considering that he had given his promise to Jackie Tyler to bring Rose home, always, _no matter what_.

And then…

Then he would say goodbye, for good, make it as if he had never exited and walk out of her life even though he would become a ghost of a person, just an echo of the Last of the Time Lords because one of his hearts would always remain with her, forever, for as long as they both lived.

Because, truthfully… even back on Gallifrey, everyone knew that a Time Lord without their destined mate was as good as that person being dead and a simple nuisance, as well as an unnecessary part of society, for no one would truly have any real gain or benefit from such a broken, shattered, lost, _dead_ person anymore.

In all truths, it was most probably why Rassilon and the High Council forbade any type of love ever being practiced on Gallifrey again, whether it was between mother and daughter, father and son, brothers, sister and especially lovers.

It was simply not to be done and punishable either by immediate termination or eternal banishment, depending on the decision of the Council.

Because love and pain went hand in hand and for a Time Lord, having the pain, but without the love was the same thing as committing suicide.

Unforgivable and utterly, absolutely, undeniably, extremely _deadly_…


	6. A Lady Bound in Death

**Hey guys (and girls) Sorry for my ever-lasting tardy-ness. I've just been SO consumed with school and exams and preparations (did I mention that I'm probably going to the States in September to study there? It's still not official, but... wish me luck) Anyways, this came out after a rather... weird... disturbing... _scary _dream I had. You know that feeling when... you're not really sleeping, but you're not fully awake either... Well... apparently that sort of "day-sleeping" is a safe haven for nightmares. Probably could be better classified as a filler or a teaser OR an interlude. You get the point. Anyways, two very, very, very, very, very important things are revealed in this chapter. One, at least for me, is quite obvious. The other... not so much.**

**As always, I would absolutely LOVE to hear your opinion on where this story is going. As of late, I was forced to throw out all my outlines and drafts cause they just didn't _fit _anymore. GAH... anyways, enjoy...**

**Reviews=love=faster updates (yup, I'm a review wh*re, hey, at least I'm not ashamed to admit it :D)**

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She had only 3 minutes left.

She could feel the fear creeping through her skin and seeping into her bones.

The twisted, swirly strands of Time danced before her eyes blurring and dissolving into each other, their vibrant, racy colors irritating her vision and hurting her eyes.

Timeline after timeline clouded her mind and caused a sharp pang to erupt in her mind as they shifted and turned, changing their directions and shaping new paths, completely different realities even, with each second that ticked by.

Not one of them stood out. They all seemed the same, really. Indecisive, first going one way and then another, coiling together and springing loose when she least expected it.

The darkness seemed to stretch in front of her indefinitely, without an apparent end anywhere in sight and for a moment she felt as if though a cold, icy hand had clutched her heart in a dead-lock grip.

"Lovely," she muttered, wincing as the words reverberated through the steep, narrow hallways and echoed around her. "Decades upon decades of Time and Space and it ends with this. Brilliant."

Her sarcasm was almost tangible. Or, would have been if there'd been anyone nearby. Seeing as there was no one around she simply sighed heavily and continued forward, dragging her hands across the sharp-edged, jagged walls, hoping to stumble upon an exit that would lead her back to the upper levels of the building.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, a sharp tug behind her navel and the almost undetectable shift in one of the timelines just to her left alerted her to someone else's presence.

Her eyes widened it terror, recognition instantaneously sparking in her head as her hand reached to her waistband to try and get the subatomic-molecular des… the gun she had.

It was too late. Oh, the irony… there was just never enough Time for anything…

A sharp gasp nearly ripped from her lips as cold, calloused hands grabbed her from behind. She recognized the press of a strong, male body against her immediately. Those outlines and the hard press of _something _against her lower back were impossible to miss.

One hand swiftly closed around her mouth and she was instantly overwhelmed by a scent that both enthralled her and caused utter disgust to erupt within her insides at the same time. The other shifted to grip her waist, pulling her unbelievable tighter to him, simply too, too low for comfort.

Her face contorted into a mask of horror as she flailed her limbs around, a futile, childish attempt of wrestling away, years and years of martial arts and self-defense training evaporating from her brain as if they'd never existed.

A clear, defined, horrific strand hung clearly behind her closed eyelids as the traitorous tears she whished would just stay away for once burned at the corners of her eyes.

_Please…_

Out of nowhere, a strange scent hit her nostrils as she breathed in a fresh gulp of air and the terror shone clear on her face as she managed to discern the smell of X2O combined with the tiniest amount of dust-like cyanide.

That was _his _signature. She was done for.

He found her.

"Did you enjoy the short stay in freedom, my Wolf?" the voice was low and malicious, full of wicked promises and certain doom. It chilled her to her very soul and stripped her bare of all defenses.

"Please, please…"

She had no idea why she was begging. He was never going to let her go. He _loved _her too much…

"Let me leave, allow me to walk away…"

_Leave us both behind_, she wanted to say, but it was obvious it was futile.

There was only one upside to this whole thing, she supposed.

The Trap had been set.

She had made him walk away, if at least for a while from his intended target. She hoped and prayed to whatever Deity was out there that it was enough.

"Now why would I do that, my pet? Hm, why would I do that and allow you to fall back in the old way, eh? Fall back with him…" his hand trailed even lower, gripping her thigh so forcefully it made her cry out in pain and surprise.

_Oh, God…_

She couldn't see his face, but she could practically feel his smirk as he nuzzled his face deep within her hair and inhaled deeply.

_Not precisely, pet. Just me…_

She shrieked at the intrusion and thrusted every single barrier she had ever been taught and had ever known. Her eyes closed on their own violation and she chose to ignore the possible future that lay hidden within her timeline and taunted her with it bright, vibrant colors and the sudden darkness where it trailed off, out of sight.

"Stay out of my head!" her scream was muffled due to his hand still being forcefully held over her mouth fiercely, forcing her to inhale the now toxic air, but it did nothing to minimize his anger at her sudden outburst.

Cerulean blue eyes widened in rage and disgust as he threw her away from him forcefully, shoving her to the ground.

She fell with a silent _thud_, the tears burning her retinas impossible to stop as they leaked from her face like crystal lakes running down her pale, numb cheeks.

She was aware that she was fully splayed on the ground before that monster. Her very own drug and personal type of hell and she knew very well just how much personal pleasure he took in seeing her like this.

She winced as a red, sticky, thick substance started to make its way down her face, the dark burgundy blood oozing from the gash that she had gotten when she hit her head on a stray rock.

A groan rumbled low in her throat as she lifted her head slowly, carefully so that she could get a good look at _him_.

Same as always… not changed a bit…

A dark, seductive, make-believe frown graced his full lips, but his baby blue eyes spoke of terrible things. They spoke of pleasure and death and power and passion she had never been able to run away from.

"Now look what you made me do, Wolf." He leaned down to her level and softly took her chin in his hand, his finger tailing the trail left behind the blood pouring from her wound. "I never wanted to do this, my Pet."

Suddenly, he looked at her. He looked at her in that way that made her feel like he could really _see _her and her alone, no one else.

His eyes burned the way the Do-his used to and underneath the layer of betrayal and pain and hatred and death and darkness and indifference, shone something she hadn't seen in so, so long.

And it was four letters long.

"I love you…" he lowered his lips gently to her forehead and dropped a light kiss. He softly swept his lips over her eyelids, her nose and her cheeks, his kisses simply feather-light brushes of skin upon skin, before reaching her lips and stopping there for a moment.

"River Song… _My _River Song."

Oh, she may have run away from him so many times before…

It didn't matter whether she was hurt by the sting of betrayal as he entered his TARDIS with a new blond or redhead under his arms – sometimes both at the same time – and cast her a simple dismissive glance over his shoulder or angered and enraged by the whips and chains of both his words and physical actions that scarred both her body and her heart.

She always found a way to leave and feel the taste of freedom on her lips and on her skin, even if for only a few flimsy hours. He always found her – because he had vowed time and time again that he will never let her walk away – or she always came back – because her heart would simply not allow her to do any other way – and there was always hell to pay for her actions – tenfold – but she always ended up doing it again.

River was running, running, always running and never looking back because she feared that if she didn't run, she would end up being completely consumed and absolutely helpless.

Helpless because of the betrayal of her own body as it responded to him. Consumed because of the burning feeling that nipped and bit on her nerve-endings each time he so much as looked at her.

He may be the monster in their twisted, sick and passionate relationship. But River… she was far, far worse.

Because she loved him.

She loved the non-Doctor with all her heart and it was something that was quite hopefully going to be the death of her one day, perhaps quite soon too.


	7. Lost and Bound

**I know I am very, very, very evil. But if its anything to you, I am sorry. Updates should pick up now that school is done, excluding this next week cause I'm going on holiday in Turkey and I have no laptop. This is actually the reason for this update, since I'm leaving tonight and I wanted to give you a little somethin', somethin' to keep ya hooked 'till I come back. This is actually a little dark and tenth Doctor OOC, but I hope that he still manages to be somewhat IC. The inspiration after all this time hit me after re-watching "Secret Smile" and once again reminding myself of David Tennant brilliant acting and watching "A good man goes to war". River's identity kinda clashes with my plans for her, but hey, this is an AU fix, right?**

**Read on... and review... (if there are any of you left out there :/ jk :D)**

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He was finally numb.

He had felt tired… so tired of everything. He was sick of feeling so fucking helpless and useless and unworthy.

He could feel _her _screams echoing around the _claste _walls and a sliver of that helpless feeling caused a zing to erupt in his chest.

He wanted to help her. He wanted to forget about what he was doing here and run to her.

Run to the only woman who had helped him and truly _cared _about how he felt, even if for only the few short hours they had spent together and postpone – indefinitely – the final act in this twisted tale.

He heard her scream again. River's soft, mellow voice that always seemed to carry a teasing tone in it was hoarse. Her pain carried in her whimpers and frightened, pained moans before ceasing for a few seconds, becoming choked with her own bloody tears.

The Doctor's jaw clenched and he shut his eyes.

He wanted to help her so _bad _he thought he would break.

But he knew he couldn't. River had made him swear… well, she had _tricked _him into swearing he wouldn't come for her.

_The person who always cares for everyone… who tries to keep everyone happy… is always the loneliest person in the Universe, _she had said.

Her eyes had been filled with an odd, ethereal sadness. Almost other-worldly in its intensity, he had stared at her, transfixed, unable to move a muscle.

_All these years, so many times, over and over and over again, you have come for me, every time I called. But not now, Doctor, not this time. This is the one time you will have to let me fall…_

With a roar of centuries of bottled-up anger interspersed with bone-deep pain – old and new – he twisted his body, simultaneously clenching his fist and slamming it into the stone walls that surrounded him, _caged_ him.

"It's not _fair_!"

His mind was a jumbled mess of thoughts and feelings and emotions and for once, he welcomed the cracking sound of his knuckles breaking.

He stared at his bloody hand with indifference and slowly brought it to his lips. Without really feeling anything, he twirled his tongue around the ripped and bloodied skin; tasted the iron tang of the life-giving liquid and drank it with an almost feverish hunger.

His eyes were unseeing and his hearts slowed their beats, continuing to beat a simple, even-toned ballade.

The emotional avalanche was still there, underneath the surface, boiling, simmering and just waiting for the opportune moment to spill.

River's moans and terrified screams still bounced around him, but he was indifferent to them.

The Doctor was finally unseeing, unhearing and most frighteningly of all, unfeeling.

He allowed a small, chilling smirk to grace his crimson lips as he continued his trail to his destination with a small bounce in his step.

He found what he was looking for in next to no time.

His Time Lord senses had taken over, erasing every last bit of humanity that had been left in some buried corner of his being.

He could smell her long before he could see. The tangy taste of tears and sweat and _arousal _hung heavy in the air around.

Turning the last corner that led to her cell, he smiled a feral grin upon seeing her.

Huddled and crouched in a corner, her arms were cradling her head as she rocked back and forth, slamming her back into the wall behind her forcefully. His keen sights registered that her shoulders were shaking and there was a heavy feeling in his chest that for the first time in a _very _long time, wasn't his own.

It was _guilt._

His little Rose Tyler was feeling guilty. The Doctor's eyes glistened with a dangerous glint.

_Good…_

He walked to the simple force field that contained her from breaking out. He smirked again.

Of course, it was powerless to contain him from breaking _in_.

He flicked his hand, a tiny, imperceptible motion, but delivered it with enough strength that the force field shattered in a matter of milliseconds.

He leaned against the newly-formed doorframe and crossed his arms at his chest. His entire posture screamed casual, but his eyes were fierce and glowing with the silver-ish shine of the _Oncoming Storm_.

"What happened to you, _Rose Tyler_?"

He knew he had been wrong to speak the words that have been haunting his mind as soon as they passed his lips.

Going for impersonal and indifferent, they were cold and drowning in the venom that had been corrupting his blood and blurring his mind since the moment he saw her with someone else.

With someone that wasn't _him_.

Her head snapped up from her curled up position on the floor and she looked up at him with tears shining in her big, hazel eyes. Never a man of great patience, his self-control already stumbling and cracking and tearing at the edges, the Doctor was past the point of caring, even though her gaze reminded him of a lost little girl, desperate and scared.

"D-Doctor?" her mumbled words only served to anger him even more.

How dare she?

Rose, _his _Rose, the woman he would have given the Universe to if she had just asked for it – had given her the Universe, actually – and would have allowed entire worlds and planets to collapse and turn to dust and ashes as long as he could have her by his side.

And she betrayed him…

"I said what happened to you Rose." He spoke through gritted teeth as he watched her pull herself up in a standing position.

At one moment, it seemed as though her knees buckled and she swayed precariously.

In that instant, still standing stubbornly at his position by the door, something inside him cracked. His hearts were beating a samba once more – only for her – and every trace of anger and betrayal that burned his blood was gone. Suddenly, he was still the same, old good Doctor that cared for everyone. His legs ached to run over to her and his hands were begging to touch her delectable skin, so soft to the touch.

The Doctor simply clenched his jaw even harder and remained standing on the far end of Rose's little confinement cell, while she was on the opposite end, completely aware that without the distance between them, he would crumble.

He would break down and scream and shout and cry and beg her to answer him, to tell him why, was he truly that bad, had she really had enough of him and wanted to leave him, but didn't know how to tell him…

_NO! _

Rose Tyler may be crying and it may be killing him not to go to her and not to sooth her, but the hatred that filled his gaze at the mere thought of her hypocrisy and propelled his hearts to shut themselves before she could crush them furthermore couldn't see that.

The silver-hued monster that had awoken within him let out an animalistic growl as it saw the purple marks on her neck that descended sharply down, deep into her cleavage and the puffiness of her lips and their sudden redness that hadn't been there before. Her soft, sun-kissed hair seemed mused and tangled, sticking out this way and that, whilst her clothes were so rumpled he could even stand to keep his gaze on her anymore.

He turned away from and shoved his hands deep into his pockets; closing his eyes and fighting against the onslaught of the salty moisture he could only remember feeling a handful of other times in all of his lives.

_How dare she reduce me to this…_

"Doctor?" her light footsteps behind him were suddenly deafening in the silence that reigned over them and he broke.

His anger blazing, his eyes shooting sparks, he walked to her in a blur of movement and grabbed her by her arms, rattling her wildly as the compulsion to throw her away from him suddenly became so alluring, so feasible…

"Why Rose? Answer me, damn it. Was I not enough? Do you hate me so much that you would go as far as to throw yourself at the first pretty boy that came across your way?"

Spittle was slipping from his lips and his eyes turned a sharp, fluorescent silver as he pushed her backwards into the wall and pressed his body against hers.

"Was he better than me? Huh, Rose? Do you really think that he can satisfy you better than I can?" his hands had begun running down her sides, clawing at her skin.

"Doctor, please." The worlds felt like a slap to her face. "This isn't you, Doctor. I'm beggin' ya to stop."

"Oh, my Rose." He looked into her eyes as he flashed a crooked, evil smile at her. "We are only just beggining."

His lips crashed upon hers in a feverish, cruel kiss that was intended to punish. It sickened her to her core as his lips assaulted her mouth, kissing and licking and biting without a halt.

The Doctor closed one hand around her throat and the other wrapped itself around her waist, pulling her sharply against him, lifting her off the ground and aligning them perfectly.

Rose felt the exact moment when the hand around her throat began to tighten and her eyes snapped open in fear, for the first time ever truly afraid of her Doctor.

Her chest began to hurt with the exertion of pumping air into her lungs and tears began to gather at the corners of her eyes.

She tried to fight him, but he was so strong. Too strong for her. His tongue began to push its way between her sealed lips and it made bile rise up her throat.

The Doctor was moaning and gathering strength from a place within her she didn't even know existed, she managed to push her arms between them and push fiercely on his chest, resulting in the further tightening of his hand.

Her breath was coming in pants and her skin was crawling with disgust and suppressed rage.

"Doctor, please, _please, _I don't want this, I don't want you. Let go of me, you're bloody choking me." Her screams rang around the silent cavern and twirled around the tension filled air.

The Doctor stilled. He was breathing heavily and his hands fell away from her, his head hanging low. He didn't even look at her as he walked away to his previous place by the door. His back hit the stone and his slid down to ground in a heap.

Rose stood frozen.

Her body was still covered in goosebumps and even the slightest thought of what had transpired only minutes ago was enough to make her sick, but she hadn't meant to say _that_.

Never that.

Heaving a deep, morose sigh, she frowned. The Doctor knew. Somehow, someway, he about her and… and the other Doctor.

"I'm sorry." Her words were quiet and humble. No one spoke and her plea went unanswered. It was a long while before either of them spoke again.

"I understand." The Doctor broke the silence and it wasn't the way Rose had hoped it would be.

"I understand why you would want him over me… I understand why you would ever do such a thing… I can even understand why you pretended to like me, I mean compare a nine hundred year old Time Lord and a nineteen year old _human _girl and you'll understand who has the upper hand in every thing, but…" he looked up at her and Rose let her mouth fall open at the sight of tear tracks drying on his face.

"What I don't understand, is why not confront me about it. Do you think me that much of a monster that you were afraid I would _hurt _you, or… or Rassilon maybe do something even worse than that if you told me that you didn't like me?" the very thought made his hearts pound with self-loathing and sickness rose up his chest, grasping him like a vice.

Did she really feel the need to hide behind a façade because she thought he would hurt her?

"No… no Doctor, of course not. It's not like that, I"

"Then tell me what it's like, Rose, because I'm trying very hard to figure this out here and somehow, someway, I am failing. So please, oh wise one, _enlighten me_." The Doctor growled at her, cutting her off, than immediately clenching his jaw and reeling backwards upon seeing the frightened expression on her face.

"I'm sorry."

"Doctor, don't be, I know. I hurt you and I am sorry, you've got to believe that. I am so, so sorry." Slowly, like she was approaching a wounded animal, Rose crawled over to the Doctor.

When he showed no signs of even noticing she was there, she sat down next to him and pulled his head to her chest.

The Doctor didn't give her a hard time, he just leaned into her and wrapped his arms around her waist, allowing Rose to cradle him and comb her fingers through his hair like he was a lost child away from its home. Which, in a way, she supposed, he really was.

The lonely wanderer without a home.

They sat together in a companionable silence, locking themselves away from the world and coexisting together just the way they always wanted to be. Just the two of them and no one else.

Over time, Rose became aware of a scraping noise coming from within the walls and someone's distant, far-away screams ringing through the corridors.

"Doctor, can you hear that?"

"Hm." He seemed dazed for a second and a bit annoyed at being interrupted, but his ears perked up.

Almost immediately after detecting the sound, his expression became dark again and his eyes closed off from her.

"Doctor?"

"It's River." At Rose's clueless and slightly angry look, he huffed in annoyance, the darkness never leaving his face.

"Oh, don't look at me like that, Rose. River Song bloody helped me find you. While you were smooching with you precious stranger, we were risking neck and head to get to you." He growled, getting to his feet and dusting himself off.

This time, at his jibe, Rose felt a bit more confident about responding, recognizing the difference between the Doctor with an angry, silver aura and eyes as black as coal and the Doctor with shadows forever haunting his face and eyes that hid eternal sadness.

"Oh, Doctor enough, he wasn't a stranger, he was…" and then she remembered.

She could never tell him. She mustn't. From what she had managed to gather, an unbelievable amount of things depended on it, obviously including the entire Universe, as always.

Then again, whatever Rose would have said next stopped mattering a single bit to the Doctor, since he gave a scream of pain and fell to the ground in a jumble of interlocked limb, spasms and profanities.

His fingers were locked at his temples and pleas for help began slipping from his mouth, in ever language she had ever heard and each and every single one she never had, along with the occasional string of curses.

"Doctor, can you hear me? Doctor, are you… Oh my God." Rose herself let out a scream as a large gash appeared on the Doctor's cheek, bleeding an intense crimson and a large, gaping wound on his knuckles she hadn't even known was there, reopened and began bleeding again profusely.

His body began to emanate a threatening golden-crimson glow warning her away from him as he continued to convulse and shiver on the cold floor, leaving Rose on her own to deal with the sudden intruders – or most probably, guards – that were fast approaching them if the sounds of their heavy footfalls were anything to go by.


	8. The Sweetest Girl

**Soo, this chapter is really thick and positively dripping with angst, perhaps not as much as I've read, but enough to make me too damn nervous about posting it on here. Just a reminder, this is rated M and this chapter deals with some rather sensitive themes, none particularly graphic nor explicit, but they still make me bite my damn nails off each time I re-read this thing. Sorry if this doesn't meet your expectations but between getting fucking fired and finding a new job and getting yelled at by my new boss and losing my unborn baby brother and sister, yeah, I was in a mood for some angst.**

**PS: Reviewers will recieve a teaser for next chapter as well as a MM from River's life and to make things more challenging for me, you can choose her age. All age is available up to 27, within the following week. Also this story is now officialy getting RE-NAMED into "LIKE A PRODIGAL". Hope you don't mind too much.**

**Kuddos... :D**

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"_Hold up, hold on, don't be scared…_

_You'll never change what's been and gone,_

_May your smile shine on…_

_Don't be scared, _

_your destiny may keep you warm…"_

_She knew she should have never gone back there._

_All the mocking stares and the spiteful whispers were simply too much for her to handle. _

_But her stomach was growling and her body was growing weak and she already had enough fresh bruises on her as it was, she really wasn't sure if she could take another one._

_He always hated it when she didn't feed herself well. If you could even call eating 3 meals a week proper feeding, that is. _

_So, as she always did, she sucked up her pride and tried to hold her head high as she walked in the room even when she was very well aware that the rip in her shirt revealed her bra and the bite marks on her breasts and that the worn-out jeans that were filled with holes and tears had blood on them from her last beating._

_She tried to hold it together as she waited in line, her stomach roaring at the scent of food even if it was less than enough and not really all that good tasting, ignoring the knowing smirks from the men around her and the pitiful glances from the shelter's patrons._

_She saw Mrs. H, the only woman who truly understood and never judged and tried to give her a brave smile albeit the fact that the waterworks were becoming harder to control and her soul was hurting far beyond any physical pain she had ever felt in her life combined together._

_It didn't work. _

_Mrs. H's eyes saw right through her and although she couldn't raise her gaze long enough to look back at her – she didn't have anywhere near enough dignity for _that_ – she could feel her stare on her, following her from across the room._

_She knew what was coming. It was already a routine as far as she was concerned._

_In no time, Mrs. H__ had a hold of her elbow and was dragging her across the room and into the 'staff only' area in the back without a word. _

_She pulled her inside a small, make-shift bedroom with a dining table and a dresser being it's only accessories. Roughly, she deposited her on the bed__ and pulled a chair, situating herself right in front of her._

"_Just what the hell do you think you're doing to yourself?" her gaze was stern and unforgiving, unlike ever before._

_The broken girl on the bed simply hanged her head, allowing her lifeless, ginger locks to cover her face as the sobs started._

_Mrs. H sighed, a deep frown marring her aged and elegant features as she raised herself from the clumpy bed and went over to the dresser, pulling out two sandwiches and placing them on the table._

_Turning to the girl whom she loved as a daughter, she sighed again and went to crouch down in front of her._

_She raised her hand ignoring the flinch the young girl responded with and cupped her cheek, raising her face to meet her._

_A silent understanding paced between the two. _

_The broken girl with ginger hair and lifeless brown eyes and the unusually wise old woman who gave up her free time to help those who didn't know how to help themselves; they both knew what was next._

_Still, it never stopped them from pretending._

_Mrs. H took off her jumper, remaining in only a simple T-shirt and threw it casually on the bed before moving to the door. _

"_Stay here, child. I'll be right back." _

_They both knew that it would be a good hour before she returned and when she did, she would only find an empty wrapping and a note scrawled on the tiny mirror saying only 'thank you' as it did each and every single time before._

_But they were both very good at acting and this time wasn't any different. _

_Only… it was._

"_I'm pregnant." River Song's small and timid voice that clashed with her age of almost 17, echoed in the room and froze Mrs. H to her spot. "And it's _his_."_

_It was a long time before either of them spoke._

_It was along time before either of them even moved._

_It was several minutes later that the resounding 'smack' filled the room as River's head went flying to the side and she whimpered, round, crystal tears running down her stinging cheek._

"_I told you to take better care of yourself damn it. He will kill you if he finds out and you know that, child." Mrs. H's eyes were filled with tears and her face was twisted into a painful grimace that told of utter heartbreak._

_River let out a shout of frustration and anger and pain as she got up and began pacing the room. "He won't, Mrs. H, he can't, he can't do that to me, to us. He can not kill out baby, no, no, he simply can't." she was starting to get hysterical in her ramblings and Mrs. H simply shook her head in sympathy. _

_She grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her gently, mindful of her injuries._

_She made River look her in the eyes and shook her head slowly._

"_He won't care."_

The words had cut deep. Too fucking deep.

Turned out, Mrs. H was right, after all. The bastards hadn't cared. Oh, he pretended he did, of course. He began showering her with presents with money she never knew he had had. He began taking her out and treating her nicely. Aside from the stray hit here and there on a rough night, she was pretty much all right.

But… of course there is a 'but'…

It didn't stop him from whoring her out to his 'business buddies'.

Nor did it stop him from beating her half to death when she had been seven months along and he had been drunk out of his head and decided that he didn't want the baby anymore.

Mrs. H had found her and had rushed her to the hospital. She had spent 26 hours through labor with River, both of them crying desperately.

River's baby boy had been born at 24 July, 2027 at 03:47am and the official TOD was 05 August, 2027 at 14:25 in the afternoon. Her baby boy had lived for less than two weeks. Worse yet… he had suffered for less than two damn weeks.

And River hadn't been able to do a thing.

She had just watched her boy, her world… suffer and waste away, getting weaker and weaker by the day and she had been so fucking helpless and incapable of doing. Anything. At. All.

He hadn't said a bloody thing. Just smiled at the nurses and answered their questions with spot-on precision she was well accustomed to and took her home. Took her back to hell.

"_Death suits him much better than life, if you ask me."_

That should have been her first clue that something was seriously wrong.

She hadn't given it a thought at the time, but now… all these years later, she knew better; the words… they were spoken with such cruelty, such _hatred_, that it made her stomach turn just thinking about them.

Sure, he was a bastard and he was cold and cruel and unmerciful, but… he was human. He still had a heart somewhere deep inside… she hoped.

She had been _so _mistaken.

There had been no warmth within those words. At all. No regret or pain; no broken-hearted tears or desperate words that were the proper etiquette after receiving the news that your first-born has died.

There was nothing. The one thing she remembered; the _only_ thing she remembered was just… satisfaction and pleasure hidden behind a carefully crafted façade.

_God…_how could she have been _so _naïve?

She remembered hearing someone say, she didn't know who, but… she remembered them saying that whilst life was hard, death was much harder.

They were wrong.

In her eyes after all the heartbreak, after every false word and broken promise, after every hit and angry bruise and apologetic _roses_… after all the sleepless nights spent huddled in a cold, street corner on constant danger alert… she was certain they had gotten it wrong.

_Death _was easy, peaceful and painless. Life, on the other hand, life was much harder.

Years ago, when things got too hard, she liked to pretend. To pretend that she had a family, that she had a warm bed and safe haven to go back to every time she desired it; every time she needed it.

Now, that brought her no comfort at all. It only reminded her of the harsh reality that was her life.

The _good _that used be her lifeline when she wanted nothing more than to curl up and die was fading away, becoming such a miniscule part of her past that her mind didn't even deem it worthy enough to remember and protect.

However, what little she could remember of it… it brought a broken smile on her face and a kick to her heart because she knew now that _she _had been the one to throw it all away.

She gave her own life away into the hands of a stranger that had played his way in and out of her childhood shaping her to become the object of his desires and when someone got in his way… he _destroyed_ them.

Silent tears slipped down her cheeks even at his screams for her to quiet down.

She couldn't and she didn't want to.

If she wanted to cry, than she bloody well was going to do so. She had had just about enough of everything.

"I_ said_, stop crying, pet." His cold, calloused hand reached down, touching her chin. Slowly and with clear enjoinment, his fingers tightened, making her whimper, and pulled her face up to his.

He grinned. It was a cruel, crooked grin filled with malicious intent that undermined the false look of worry and concern sketched in his arctic, blue eyes.

River's face was blackened with tears and some old scars that littered her face and neck were hidden by the new onslaught of blood that ran down from the new wounds he had given her.

However, despite the "Doctor's" intentions, it still couldn't break her.

His little slave still gazed at him with eyes full of determination and disgust, fiercely holding her chin up high and refusing to lower her gaze as he had taught her to do.

_Someone was going to pay…_

"What it is it to you whether I stop or not?" her voice was strong and clear, if a little hoarse.

He had underestimated his sweetheart. He shouldn't have only placed the steel choker on her neck keeping her bound to the wall behind her; he should have also gagged her. It would have saved him a lot of frustrations.

With a sharp flick of his entire arm, he slapped her on the face, making her head fly to the side. River choked on the blood and bile that rose up her throat.

She had to get away… Somehow… _Anyhow… _Before he killed her.

Slowly returning her head to face him again, she cringed inside. She thought that she would be able to do this. She thought that she had gotten used to the frequent hits and venomous remarks that marred her both on the outside and on the inside.

Apparently, she hadn't. It seemed that she never truly would.

"How dare you talk to me like that? Who do you think you are, but a worthless, little whore?" he was spitting the words and his eyes flashed with anger.

River didn't say anything; she simple held herself and glared at his eyes, never breaking her gaze.

The "Doctor" raised his hand, ready to strike her again. River simply narrowed her eyes, summoning the last of her strength as her gaze dared him to hit her.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

Using the momentum, River used up all of her remaining strength and gathered her legs at her knees, before pushing them out in a fierce kick directly in the "Doctor's" stomach.

He looked at her, a fleeting, angry glance before falling to the ground coughing blood.

"Impressive."

Reminded of the third presence in the room, River flinched before turning her head carefully towards the direction of the sound.

Upon seeing the person standing propped up on his shoulder against the entrance and taking notice of his short, shaggy blond hair and blue eyes, she smiled in shock and surprise.

After what might have been seconds or minutes or hours, she finally found her voice.

"You!"

The man smirked at her in a cocky manner she had come to recognize about him and tipped his nonexistent Stetson at her.

"Howdy, Commander Tyler, ready to rock this joint up?"


End file.
